Trump and MAGA plow ahead with plan for abortion ban

Voting booths were set up during the 2022 Midterm elections inside a church in Georgia. Christian nationalists make no secret of their intention to take over the GOP and they make no secret of their desire to take down the constitutional barriers between church and state. Their support for an authoritarian Christian theocracy is on full display at the RNC convention underway now in Milwaukee. | Ben Gray/AP

Despite attempts to gaslight swing voters, Trump and MAGA Republicans are plowing ahead full throttle with their fascist agenda to create an authoritarian Christian nationalist theocracy that bans abortions, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and contraception and runs roughshod over the privacy rights of Americans.

The GOP is an open and ugly fascist party. Its embrace of the Project 2025 agenda, authored by the Heritage Foundation, a network of extreme right-wing plutocrats, organizations, and Christian nationalists, the GOP platform, and Trump’s selection of Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his vice-presidential running mate shows the GOP is doubling down on its extremism, assault on reproductive rights, and democracy.

In sharp contrast, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly warned about this threat. Biden declared at a rally in Detroit that the first bill he would sign if re-elected is a national law codifying abortion rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe vs Wade, a landmark case that eliminated the federal right to an abortion, fueled an intense voter backlash. Consequently, pro-reproductive rights and Democratic voter turnout surged in 2022 and 2023 and special elections this year, including in red states.

The voter turnout revealed the existence of an anti-MAGA majority, with 53% of Americans believing Trump represents a dangerous threat to democracy. Reproductive rights are a chief issue for these voters, particularly in the 12 states where abortion rights referendums are on the ballot and in battleground states and districts where 60% of voters believe Republicans will restrict abortion access further if they prevail in November.

Trump, a serial rapist and convicted felon, recognized that MAGA’s anti-abortion stance is toxic for Republicans but knows this issue is also central to mobilizing MAGA base voters. So, Trump boasted about appointing three anti-abortion justices to the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down Roe vs. Wade.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed to be moderating MAGA’s extreme position by opposing a national abortion ban and leaving the decision up to the states. Naturally, he didn’t denounce abortion bans where they exist.

But this head fake doesn’t fool swing voters, despite some mainstream mass media outlets claiming Republicans and specifically JD Vance oppose a nationwide abortion ban. And now, the more voters learn about Project 2025 with its misogynist and anti-reproductive rights provisions, the more they oppose it.

Under Project 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services will be renamed the ‘Department of Life’ in a nod to Christian nationalists. The government will track miscarriages, stillbirths, and abortions, intruding into the private lives of women and their families, including tracking and arresting women who cross state lines to access abortion care.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, which is used in more than half of abortions nationwide, will be revoked. The FDA would require patients to obtain them in person rather than through the mail and would employ the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law, to prosecute people who send abortion pills or other abortion materials through the mail.

“Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world,” the document states.

Republicans will not enforce federal protections allowing women to get emergency stabilizing care, including abortion, if their life or health is in imminent danger, making pregnancy more dangerous.

Covering care would be challenging

Getting emergency contraceptive care covered by insurance will be more challenging, according to the Washington Post. Federal government protections for members of the military and their families to get abortion care will end.

Voters are alarmed by these plans, including 70% of independents and 40% of Republicans. According to the latest Navigator Research poll, 78% say Project 2025’s proposal to allow the government to monitor pregnancies will hurt the country. Additionally, 73% oppose allowing employers to deny access to birth control, 71% oppose banning abortions, and 71% oppose banning IVF. This growing public awareness and opposition to Project 2025 is a sign of increasing engagement and understanding of the issues at stake.

So, in the lead-up to the convention, Trump tried to distance himself from the Project 2025 fascist manifesto, claiming he knew nothing about it and insisting he disagreed with its most extreme positions.

But Trump, despite half-hearted denials combined with a “wink and nod,” spoke enthusiastically about Project 2025 and its call for a national abortion ban at the Heritage Foundation in 2022. And over 140 former administration officials and current campaign operatives have links to Project 2025.

Mainstream media outlets misleadingly reported Republicans had “softened” the abortion plank of the platform by dropping specific language calling for a national abortion ban. However, the new platform contains language that “links abortion to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, leaving a path to legislation or court decisions that would grant fetuses additional legal rights.”

MAGA activists expect the Federalist Society and Christian nationalist-dominated U.S. Supreme Court to declare fetal personhood from the moment of conception, a ruling that would result in charging women who have abortions and anyone who assists them with murder.

To top it off, Trump’s VP pick, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is a hardcore anti-abortion zealot and misogynist. Vance’s positions are so extreme he scrubbed his website after being announced.

“Vance isn’t just your run-of-the-mill anti-abortion Republican,” writes Jessica Valenti. “He’s a full-on ‘trad’ husband, obsessed with forcing women in the home (and out of the public square) and calling anyone who disagrees “childless cat ladies.” A hundred dollars says he has Harrison Butker on speed dial.”

Vance once said women should stay in violent marriages “for the sake of their kids,” and supports national bans on abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and on IVF. Vance would become the administration’s principal attack dog in implementing Project 2025 and its anti-abortion provisions.

When asked how the GOP platform minus the national abortion ban would sit with anti-abortion voters, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, “Yes there’s going to be a bit of a challenge here. But partly we look back to what (Trump) has done. He has brought us to this point. This I’m confident of, and I’ve had conversations with the former president, that if Congress were to reach a consensus on a piece of (anti-abortion) legislation and send it to his desk, I have no doubt he would sign it. His record is clear as the most (anti-abortion) president we’ve had.”

As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Bachtell

John Bachtell is president of Long View Publishing Co., the publisher of People's World. He is active in electoral, labor, environmental, and social justice struggles. He grew up in Ohio, where he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs. He currently lives in Chicago.