Laura Bassett: Arizona's Draconian Abortion Ban Belongs to Trump

https://www.thecut.com/article/trump-arizona-abortion-ban.html

*snip*

Arizona is not the first example of how kicking abortion back to the states subverts “the will of the people.” Everywhere voters have been allowed to weigh in on abortion via ballot measure after Dobbs — even in red states — they have chosen to protect abortion rights. Yet Republican lawmakers are overriding their constituents at every turn and ramming through unpopular, draconian bans on the procedure. Texas enacted an unhinged bounty-hunter abortion law that incentivizes people to spy on one another; North Carolina Republicans schemed with a Democrat to have her switch parties to help them pass a vetoproof 12-week abortion ban; and Florida lawmakers passed a draconian ban on abortion at six weeks, which is before many women even realize they’re pregnant. GOP lawmakers in Ohio went as far as trying to undermine a pro-abortion ballot measure that voters approved in the courts; their efforts to stop the new constitutional amendment from taking effect have been unsuccessful.

Trump has endorsed all of these bans and craven tactics by suggesting that state legislatures, many of which are gerrymandered to hell, should be allowed to pass any kind of abortion restriction they feel like passing. If his disingenuousness on the issue weren’t already obvious, the moment Republican senator Lindsay Graham and anti-abortion activists pushed back on his latest comments, he basically told them to STFU until he wins reelection.

“Many good Republicans lost elections because of this issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the presidency,” he snapped back on Truth Social.

The subtext here is that Trump would be very open to signing a federal abortion ban if it were to come across his desk in a nonelection year. As president, he could also direct the Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act, a dormant 1873 law that could effectively ban abortion nationwide, much like what just happened in Arizona. In that case, Trump wouldn’t even have to sign any anti-abortion legislation. Twenty-six Republican senators and 119 Republican House members have already signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to ban abortion via the Comstock Act.

*snip*