Does the leadership of the GOP REALLY intend to ban abortion?

[UdoKier]

Poll question: Does the leadership of the GOP REALLY intend to ban abortion?

Does the leadership of the GOP REALLY intend to ban abortion?


Or is it just a scam to get fundies to vote for them?


Remember, we're talking about the LEADERSHIP, not your typical zonked-out fundie voter...

[AuntPatsy]

1. Sure they would, why would they care? For the down trodden

it is all about religion, for the uptown, they have the money for what in essence would be once again, back street abortions...those up high don't care either way, they always will be able to get what they want and need....


I have no doubt they would do it...

[UdoKier]

6. I don't think so. You're assuming they're honest.

They WANT abortion to be legal. That's why they only pass little measures to limit it, then watch them be declared unconstitutional, then they pass something else, but they NEVER try to pass an amendment, and they never will.

I wish more democrats understood this about the GOP. Their leadership is LESS Christian the democratic leadership. They worship money and nothing else, that's why they have no problem conning the fundie wingnuts into voting for them over and over again with the phony abortion "issue" which they have no intention of ever really stopping.

[AuntPatsy]

9. Honesty has nothing to do with it? Abortionists have been around

for ages, and they know it, evil they may be, stupid they are not, bottom line, they don't care, throw the dog a bone, they don't have to constantly feed them in order to make em love them any more than they already do...abortion is just one of those bones, there are plenty more to be had..

[noamnety]

2. abortions AND birth control

And then they will fire pregnant single women for not having morals.

[UdoKier]

3. If they want to ban it so bad, why don't they ever actually try to ban it?

Why have they NEVER proposed an amendment?


They know the problem is with the constitution. Why not pass an amendment?

Oh, yeah, because if they passed it, there would be no reason for fundies to vote GOP anymore, except the Gays, and that might not be enough...


It's a cynical ploy. The GOP leadership cares no more about fetuses than they do welfare mothers.

[serryjw]

10. Its' gone already

I have posted this many times and no one is paying attention. ROE is gone in 87% of the counties in America. CA & NYC will never fall in line. We will have an underground RR to both sides of the country for reproductive rights.

[UdoKier]

14. Good point. It's not as accessible as it should be, but...

Would YOU want to be a doctor performing abortion in a heavily fundie community?

Not me, thanks. For the time being, a bus ticket is going to have to be part of the cost of an abortion, unfortunately.

[serryjw]

20. F*CK NO!

...and thats the problem. An abortion clinic can 'hide' in a BIG city but not in small towns. They all put themselves in jeopardy. Its' not like abortion doctors have not been killed. We wanted a 'bubble' around clinics to keep the fundies away by 100 yards BUT the rethugs voted it down.
Like everything else in America you can have RIGHTS YOU CAN AFFORD! Try telling a poor woman in MS that she has to go to CA for an abortion that will cost her over $1000.

[Clark2008]

4. I voted "no,"

because I don't think they really care about life.
It's all just a game to them and they certainly don't want to have to pay more to take care of a bunch of "ingrates."

I tend to think of them as the most hypocritical bunch of assholes that ever inhabited the earth. Jesus would be flinging them out of the metaphorical Temple right and left for imposing Caesar on God or vice versa.

[high density]

5. Not yet

They'll still need the issue in 2008.

[AuntPatsy]

11. They have plenty of other issues to play with a few more years..

[Denver Socialist]

7. Their favorite wedge issue will be obsolete soon.

Mark my words, and Republicans will be endangered, on its way to a permanent minority, once the people of the United States see what a fuckup the government are (and get rid of the black box voting while we're at it, and go back to paper ballots)

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. They're just using the fundies. They are authoritarian fascists,

which plays well to the fundies, so they have to toss them something occassionally, but in the long run, they need the issue.

Just as Castro needs the economic embargo to hold power, the fascists need the abortion issue. Look at Gonzales -- he's a moderate on the issue. A couple years at Justice, then * puts him up for the supremes, after putting a hardliner in to replace Renquist, throwing a bone to the fundies. Doesn't change the makeup of the court on that issue, but makes it look like they're on the fundies' side.

Personally, I don't believe a word of *'s 'conversion'. He is not one of them.

[UdoKier]

12. Good point. Their litmus tests for judges are NOT about abortion.

But you can be DAMN sure they make sure that the judges are anti-labor, anti-human rights, anti-individual and pro-corporate.

And the dem dummies only ever fret about their position on choice issues.

[Selwynn]

13. Wouldn't it be political suicide -- ?

I've always thought that while fundametalist right-wing fanatics like to make a huge deal of it, that there was very strong support for abortion rights amoung women, and aren't males about 50/50 split on the issue? How could a party afford to alientate that many voters?

[Wapsie B]

15. I voted No.

I think they're just stringing the lemmings along. But then again if repugs do nothing on this front during the next 4 years I don't see how konservative fundies would stand for it.
12 years of Reagan/Bush I, and now another term for the chimp. Sooner or later all but the absolute dumbest of the bunch would realize they've been had BIG time.

[UdoKier]

16. Seems to me they like to pass limitations that'll be overturned by courts.

Where's the constitutional amendment? I'm waitin' for it!

[Lexingtonian]

17. They don't really care

But as a selfish matter and as a matter of convenience, of course they're not for banning it. If they did, they'll be sure to have someplace easy to go to get it done, say Bermuda or the Caymans, or Toronto. Used to be Mexico's border cities, after all, before Roe v Wade.

Roe v Wade says there is living that lies outside the Constitution, that is not up for public debate. They can fumble with all the issues in that department any way they like, but the essentiality and extent of that truth are going to remain.

[booley]

18. Both

becuase they know they can still ban abortion and yet still have abortion.

After all, banning abortion didn't keep women from getting one before. why would it work now?

But if they ban it they can have a whole new class of criminal to use as boogymen. I mean, boogy-women

[UdoKier]

19. But how do you mobilize fundy voters with criminal boogeymen?

I really think you need legal or semi-legal abortion as a rallying point for these nuts.

[booley]

32. they didn't need it for drugs

supposedly crack addicts are going to come in and rape our dogs while buying a single marijuana joint will give Osama bin ladin the money to nuke Texas.

and trust me, after gays are forever barred from marriage, they will still be a threat to the institution of decent heterosexual marriage. Somehow. In a way that..they can't explain.

Fear and hate needs no logic.

[GodHelpUsAll2]

21. I voted no

I have never thought they would completely get rid of it. The right wing voter has been duped on this issue since Regan. And the idiot's who voted for them because of this issue have been fooled once again. Problem is, they probably won't figure it out this time either.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. I voted no but they *will* overturn it ....... for now. Here's their game:

They will overturn it, but in a way that some judge will find their doing it unconstitutional. That fires up their fundamentalist base.

"But this is a tough one," they'll say.

"Activist judges," they'll say.

The overturn will stand, abortion will remain legal, they get a renewed devil (the pro-choice people), and can say to the fundamentalists, "We tried."

This will, in turn start even more hate and divisivness in the country and the whole rotten act starts all over again.

[regnaD kciN]

23. Not a snowball's chance in hell...

If Republicans really managed to outlaw abortion, it would have two effects, both negative for them:

1) Instantly, much of the fundamentalist furor would subside, and the the G.O.P. would lose a crucial, guaranteed, and motivated part of its base. (Sure, there are other issues like gay marriage to rile up the fundies, but nothing quite as powerful, or as self-righteously motivating, as the notion that they're on a crusade to "protect human life" from liberal "baby killers" who have brought about a "modern holocaust.")

2) Even as it de-motivates the fundies, it will re-motivate millions upon millions of voters (even those who are ambivalent about abortion as a moral issue) who both desire and take for granted that the option of abortion will always remain available, if only as a "last resort." Just as there is now a significant bloc of "single-issue" voters (possibly enough to tip a national election) who put banning abortion above all other considerations in deciding who to vote for, at that point, it will be the turn of pro-choicers to become the single-issue bloc...and the elections will start tipping their way.

No, Republicans can't afford to have the abortion issue go away, even if it were to do so in a successful outcome for them. Most likely, they will take actions to make it look like they are trying to ban abortion, but are doomed to fail. That way, they can keep coming back to the fundies, election after election, promising that they only need a few more electoral victories, a bit more of a majority, before they can finally implement the "pro-life" agenda over the machinations of "pro-death liberals." :eyes:

[Ima]

25. I believe they will do it.

[renaissanceguy]

24. I think we should change the topic in Washington

How about talking about the death penalty, instead? We already know that prisoners are living...we can agree on that. And when the religious right comes out FOR the death penalty, we can point out their hypocrisy ("pro"-life)

[newyawker99]

33. Hi renaissanceguy!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Piperay]

26. No

that is their 'carrot and stick' to get the fundie vote, if they got rid of it they lose it and have nothing to tease the fundies with.:freak:

[bklyncowgirl]

27. Some may be honest abortion opponents but most are using the issue

Corporate America couldn't give a flying fuck about whether or not women can get legal abortions in the United States. My guess is that they would like to see the issue continue so that they can distract the true believers from what they are doing to this country.

[bklyncowgirl]

28. Some may be honest abortion opponents but most are using the issue

Corporate America couldn't give a flying fuck about whether or not women can get legal abortions in the United States. My guess is that they would like to see the issue continue so that they can distract the true believers from what they are doing to this country.

[shesemsmom]

29. nope they wont do it.

they might need one someday..

[SoCalDem]

30. They just don't want to okay FUNDS for it..

Their fundie-pals will be ok with that, since most of them would have access to a "friend of a friend, who knows a doctor" anyway, so it;s no skin off their noses..

They just want to punish those "depraved sex-crazy teenagers" who will also give birth to cute little white babies that they will be happy to turn over for adoption..

Ever since Jesus invented the sharp stick..there have been abortions.. They know it too.. They are just greedy self-righteous pigs who are too stingy to care about healthcare for anyone but themselves..

[hollowdweller]

31. I don't think they really want to ban it but I think that the

fundamentalists are going to push it thru. The average wealthy GOP er would like to have a few restrictions, but if their daughter comes home and says she's pregnant and the father is black they would like to still be able to get one, so they really want to leave the door open. However I think the religious right sees this as their golden opportunity. THEY have accumulated political capital, and intend to spend it.