#national abortion ban

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday expressed confidence that the public would support his 15-week federal abortion ban proposal but acknowledged it does not have the votes to pass the Senate.

“I’m pro-life, even in an election year,” Graham told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream.

“I am confident the American people would accept a national ban on abortion at 15 weeks,” Graham said. “And to those who suggest that being pro-life is losing politics, I reject that.”

The South Carolina Republican on Tuesday introduced a bill that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy nationwide, carving out exceptions for rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger.

The move has attracted criticism from some in his own party, who expressed a desire to leave abortion legislation to states after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June.

Bream asked Graham about comments he made two days after the decision, in which the South Carolina Republican said that Americans should “let every state do it the way they would like” on abortion restrictions.

“Here’s what Dobbs says: elected officials can make the decision, state or federal. I’m not inconsistent,” Graham said when Bream pressed him on his June comments.

Graham called the suggestion he has flipped his position “ridiculous,” noting he has introduced a 20-week abortion ban multiple times in the Senate and other related bills. But he acknowledged that “we will not pass them all” when it comes to abortion bills.

“I will not sit on the sidelines and watch this nation become China when it comes to aborting babies up to the moment of birth,” he said. “I reject that. I will continue to introduce legislation at the national level setting a minimum standard at 15 weeks.”

Despite general agreement among Republican lawmakers on tightening abortion restrictions at the state level, Graham’s proposal has been met with some GOP opposition.

The bill’s introduction comes less than two months before the midterm elections, and Republicans are hoping to flip control of Congress.

Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping the abortion ruling can energize liberal voters in races this fall to maintain their razor-thin majorities.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnnell (R-Ky.) told reporters last week that his caucus is not eager to debate the legislation.

“I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level,” McConnell said.

Asked if Graham’s bill is sanctioned by the leadership, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) similarly said “no.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 13, 2022

Heather Cox Richardson

In an event at the White House today, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the First Lady and Second Gentleman, along with lawmakers and those who worked for the causes the law embraces, celebrated the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the new law that lowers prescription drug costs, invests in new technologies to combat climate change, and raises taxes on billion-dollar corporations both to fund the new investments and to reduce the federal deficit. In contrast, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today announced he will introduce a national abortion ban. This is a pretty transparent attempt by the Republicans to deal with the political toxicity of the Republican-dominated Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, a toxicity unlikely to go away while news breaks, as it did today, that the state of Texas will not publish data on maternal death until after the midterm elections, suggesting the data will be bad indeed. When the court ended the recognition of the constitutional right to reproductive rights in June, Republicans tried to manage the backlash by saying that the decision would simply return to the states the right to decide the status of abortion within their boundaries. The idea was actually that of enslavers in the 1830s: that true democracy operated at the state level because lawmakers there were closer to their constituents and would represent them better than those at the national level, thus enabling them to dismiss national pressure against enslavement as interference in state rights. Graham himself echoed this line. As recently as August 7, 2022, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, he said, “I’ve been consistent. I think states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.” Now, as those opposing the end of the national protection of abortion rights warned, Graham is calling for a national abortion ban. He tried to explain away the change by saying that after the Democrats had announced what they stood for—presumably, President Joe Biden’s recent warning that Trump and the MAGA Republicans endanger our rights and our democracy, while the Democrats have rebuilt the economy for everyone—he wanted to make sure the Republicans did, too. But the Republicans can read the polls as well as anyone and are facing the reality that their base might well not turn out without Trump on the ballot, while opponents of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturning Roe v. Wade are showing up in big numbers to vote against Republicans. Graham’s offer to impose a national ban on abortion seeks to bring the Republican base to the polls. “If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill,” he said today. “If the Democrats are in charge, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vote on our bill.” But while Graham courted the Republicans’ extremist base, he also tried to make his proposal palatable for those who support reproductive rights by framing it as a moderate one that would simply bring the U.S. in line with European countries by banning abortion after 15 weeks, ignoring that European countries have much better access to contraception, early abortion, exceptions to the laws, and maternity care. The proposal is neither moderate nor in line with European countries. But it is also a giant red flag for our democracy, showing that the argument that the federal government should turn issues back to the states was the lie opponents said it was. Graham is calling for the federal government to impose a law backed only by an extremist minority on the entire country. It is the same principle that so-called “originalists” pretended to reject in the Dobbs decision, now reimposed to reflect not the will of the majority, but the tyranny of the minority. Some Republican Senators are distancing themselves from Graham’s proposal, but that distancing reflects the attempt to muddy the waters so voters can believe what they want. The proposal reflects both concern on the part of Republican leaders going into the midterms, and a determination to hide what they are really calling for. CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona reported this afternoon that at least 80 House Republicans are introducing their own bill, similar to Graham’s. Over on his Truth Social network, where he has been amplifying extremist QAnon accounts, Trump has been making it harder to deny the party’s growing radicalism. Today, he “retruthed” an image of himself wearing a QAnon pin with Q slogans, apparently going all-in on the conspiracy theory base. Ben Collins of NBC News noted the importance of the words on the image—“The Storm is Coming”—which refer to the “big end date for QAnon, when Trump is supposed to round up all of his political enemies and hang them in public after a brief military tribunal.” Trump’s legal troubles continue to mount. The new subpoenas from the Department of Justice appear to be focusing on the money Trump’s Save America PAC raised for an “Official Election Defense Fund” that didn’t exist. The money went to Trump’s associates. This scam is not unlike the one for which Trump associate Stephen K. Bannon is now indicted: he and others allegedly raised at least $15 million to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, only to pocket the money. Trump pardoned him from federal charges, but Bannon is now facing state charges in New York. “The simple truth is that it is a crime to profit off the backs of donors by making false pretenses,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters. Today the affidavit for the search warrant that FBI agents fulfilled at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 was released with fewer redactions. The new material reveals that after handing over documents produced for a subpoena, Trump’s lawyer told the Department of Justice that “he was advised” that all White House records were in the storage room at Mar-a-Lago and that “he was not advised” there were records anywhere else. Ryan Goodman of Just Security notes that this likely points to Trump as the person lying to him. The subpoena for security videos from the vicinity of the storage room at Mar-a-Lago reached back to January 10, 2022. This afternoon, Missy Ryan of the Washington Post reported that a senior U.S. official has revealed that since 2014, Russia has spent at least $300 million in more than 24 countries to weaken democracies and strengthen global forces friendly to Putin’s interests. That would likely include funds spent attacking U.S. elections, most notably that of 2016, as detailed in the five-volume report of the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian Active Measures, Campaigns, and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election. The administration commissioned a review of Russian efforts this summer and discovered that Russia intended to continue pouring money into destabilizing other countries. The administration will declassify some of the report to show the techniques Russia has been using. “By shining this light on Russian covert political financing and Russian attempts to undermine democratic processes, we’re putting these foreign parties and candidates on notice that if they accept Russian money secretly we can and we will expose it,” the official told reporters. Meanwhile, Russian president Putin’s power at home is wobbling. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted today that he had a 90-minute phone call with Putin in which he demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine and recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Fifty Russian municipal deputies have publicly called for Putin to resign.

—

Notes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/13/united-states-russia-political-campaign/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/13/biden-inflation-reduction-act/

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-09-13-22/h_b439762c2fb1cc0a92457f4214601e58

George Conway🌻 @gtconway3dAccording to a newly unredacted portion of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit, FPOTUS COUNSEL 1 squarely points the finger at FPOTUS. File under "Obstruction of Justice"; "18 U.S.C. § 1519." NEW Trump lawyer told DOJ/FBI "he was advised" all White House records were in MAL storage room, and "he was not advised" any records were in any private office space. Most likely points to ... being advised by his client, Donald Trump. Less redacted Affidavit just released.👇 https://t.co/HT7K6j5VU7

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw

836 Retweets3,044 Likes

September 13th 2022

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/just-security-fbi-mar-a-lago-afidavit-wth-fewer-redactions.pdf

Aaron Rupar @atruparKarine Jean-Pierre: "I'm going to quote Lindsey Graham from August 7, 2022, and he said, 'I've been consistent. I think states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.' That's from his own mouth and now he wants to do a national ban."

3,117 Retweets13,926 Likes

September 13th 2022

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlawNEW Trump lawyer told DOJ/FBI "he was advised" all White House records were in MAL storage room, and "he was not advised" any records were in any private office space. Most likely points to ... being advised by his client, Donald Trump. Less redacted Affidavit just released.👇

1,329 Retweets3,919 Likes

September 13th 2022

Ben Collins @oneunderscore__Trump again going mask off with the QAnon stuff on TruthSocial today. He "retruthed" a photoshop of himself wearing a Q pin plus a couple of Q catchphrases from a Q account. Trump's not flirting with QAnon anymore, he's moving in.

2,164 Retweets7,676 Likes

September 13th 2022

Alex Kaplan @AlKapDC@oneunderscore__ Trump last night amplified at least 4 QAnon-supporting accounts. https://t.co/ovIxk1BrB7

Alex Kaplan @AlKapDC

11 Retweets43 Likes

September 13th 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/13/lindsey-grahams-abortion-ban-proposal-is-not-helping-his-party/

Can We Still Govern?Debunking the false comparisons between European and American abortion policiesWith the Dobbs decision, a curious thing has happened. I’m not talking about SCOTUS stripping away a previously established a constitutional right, which is more deeply disturbing than curious. I’m talking the sudden enthusiasm among Conservatives to talk about European abortion policy…Read more2 months ago · 18 likes · Don Moynihan

Melanie Zanona @MZanonaNEW: A group of House Republicans is introducing their own 15-week abortion ban bill today, which is expected to have at least 80 original co-sponsors — including @RepStefanik, the No. 3 House Republican, per sources.

360 Retweets633 Likes

September 13th 2022

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/13/trump-doj-subpoenas-jan-6-save-america-pac/

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/08/steve-bannon-surrenders-to-manhattan-da-00055427

Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz @Bundeskanzler90 Minuten Telefonat mit #Putin: Russland muss seine Truppen aus der #Ukraine zurückziehen und die Souveränität und territoriale Integrität anerkennen. Anders ist eine diplomatische Lösung nicht vorstellbar.

1,343 Retweets11,530 Likes

September 13th 2022

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Texas-delays-publication-of-maternal-death-data-17439477.php

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/13/politics/joe-biden-joe-manchin-inflation-reduction-act-deal/index.html

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[sher-ee]

[bespangeled]

Donald Trump Again?!

Here is what Trump promises his base.

He will ban abortion nationwide. He will legally delegitimize trans Americans. He will indict his political enemies. He will round up, intern, and deport undocumented immigrants. He will send the military to the border. He will invade Mexico. He will round up the homeless and send the National Guard into cities to fight crime. He will bring back the death penalty in a big way. He will roll back all of Biden’s climate progress and reinvest in fossil fuels. He will overhaul the education system in the MAGA image. He will torch the First Amendment by going after non-MAGA media.

If you boycott the vote you are responsible for the hell you bring on all of us. Let me repeat this - if you boycott the vote you are responsible for the hell you bring on all of us. Don't protest the hell in Gaza by giving us 4 more years of Trump. Resist fascism.

[letterstothefutureme]

This decision is bad enough on its own but the rationale for the decision is unconstitutional.

In a concurring opinion, the chief justice of the court writes, “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.”

Laws cannot be based on someone’s sky daddy.

Not my club, not my rules.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[whatthehelloh]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Conservatives are fuming after Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called out Ohio and Indiana for restricting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights in her 2023 State of the State address.

“Bigotry is bad for business,” Whitmer exclaimed while discussing the need for Michigan to expand reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination laws in the state.

Whitmer explained that not only is protecting these civil rights the right thing to do, but it’s also good for the economy because states lose talent when their laws are too extreme.

She then issued a direct challenge to her neighbors.

“Together, we are going to change Michigan from a state with century-old bans to forward looking protections. Our message is simple: we will fight for your freedom. And you know what? Let’s go on offense. I’ll go to any state that restricts people’s freedoms and win business and hardworking people from them. I’m looking at you, Ohio and Indiana.”

Michigan is currently experiencing a Democratic trifecta, with Democrats holding a majority in both legislative chambers and the governorship. Democrats also control the office of the Secretary of State and Attorney General. It is reportedly the first time in 40 years that Democrats control all levels of power in the state.

Ohio and Indiana have the exact opposite, with every significant office dominated by Republicans.

The Michigan GOP was not happy with Whitmer’s comments.

Republican House Rep. Andrew Beeler, told Fox2, “I think that it is remarkable that our state plan for economic development is to lure more businesses and people with the prospect of being able to kill unborn children.”

The state GOP, itself, tweeted out angrily, “No. You know who is losing talent? Michigan. Here it is again, Gretch – more people moved OUT of Michigan in 2022 than in.”

But many were quick to criticize the tweet for failing to recognize that last year, Republicans were in control of the legislature.

[taviokapudding]

*taps microphone*

I would like to say something to all white women who identify as Christian & conservative in the US who are happy about Roe v Wade being overturned but haven’t realized the RNC wants to turn you all into baby making machines to preserve “white life”

[tomorrowusa]

It’s awesome that young people in Texas are registering to vote in droves.

A new analysis from political data and polling firm TargetSmart found that while Texas’ new voter registrants are evenly split between men and women, they are younger and more Democratic than before the June ruling.

“It’s not that we’re not seeing a surge from women but that in Texas, we’re somewhat uniquely also seeing a surge from men, particularly younger, more progressive men, who are matching the surge from women,” said CEO Tom Bonier, whose firm works with Democratic and progressive candidates.

“I would expect to see that trend develop more in other states as we get closer to the election, but it was interesting to see Texas as first in that sense.”

In turnout elections, people really need to turn out.

Kansas had a record turnout for its August primary when there was a radical anti-abortion measure on the ballot. Because of that enormous turnout, abortion remains legal in The Sunflower State.

The state’s young voters — defined as those under age 25 — are also leaning more blue, the analysis found. Democrats now make up 47 percent of young Texas voters, up from 34 percent. The Republican share has remained the same at just under 30 percent.

The only way to get rid of semi-fascist Trump Republicans is by voting Democratic. Wasting votes on dipshit third parties who have ZERO chance of winning is a bizarre act of futility.

Voting Democratic is the only way to protect abortion. Be wary of Trump Republican candidates who have been cleansing their websites of their fanatical opposition to abortion. They got to be GOP candidates in the first place because they had to jump through the ideological flaming hoops of extremist anti-abortion groups.

Whether there’s a specific ballot measure or not, abortion is still on the ballot in every state.

And to be able to vote, you need to register. If you’ve moved (even just two doors away) you need to re-register or amend your old registration. Address is key to registration.

Be A Voter - Vote Save America

[bispectacular]

I don't know how all these anti-voters expect us to believe that they'd be willing to start riots and overthrow the government of they can't even be bothered to take an hour to vote against the party that's actively trying to kill people.

[orcelito]

like y’all it’s not like im planning on getting pregnant anytime soon (or ever) Nor am i really at risk of it, but still feels pretty shitty to b living in indiana with them banning this shit lmao