MISS INFORMATION – Republicans Are the Pro-Misogyny Party

By Judy Gordon, DPSC Secretary

Re-printed from the Rio Rancho Observer with permission.

At the presidential debate, Trump stated, “And as far as the abortion ban, no, I’m not in favor of [an] abortion ban.” This statement is deceptive.

Antiabortion lawmakers and activists do not use the word “ban” in the way it is commonly understood. Laws allowing abortions within six weeks of pregnancy or with exceptions for rape and incest? These are merely “restrictions”; they are not bans. To MAGA Republicans, anything but an absolute prohibition is not a ban. Presto chango, no federal abortion ban! Problem solved.

And who else disingenuously claims to oppose a federal abortion ban? Senate hopeful Nella Dominici. After Sen. Martin Heinrich aired an ad asserting Domenici would vote for a federal abortion ban, her campaign issued a cease and desist letter. Heinrich’s campaign responded, “It is not defamatory to point out when a wolf drapes itself in a sheep’s clothing.”

But who needs a federal abortion ban when the zombie 1873 Comstock Act is still on the books? 

The Comstock Act could be used to criminalize mailing abortion medication and equipment, effectively banning abortions. The Comstock Act could also be used to ban certain kinds of birth control conservatives consider abortifacients such as emergency contraceptives and IUDs. MAGA Republicans in Congress have already blocked legislation that would guarantee access to abortion, birth control, and IVF.

Antiabortion activists like to pretend they’re protecting women. Although the abortion medication mifepristone is many times safer than penicillin or Viagra, Project 2025 claims it is so dangerous it should be taken off the market. According to Project 2025, since mifepristone was approved over 20 years ago, it has been associated with 26 deaths of pregnant women. But as the FDA points out, adverse events cannot be causally attributed to mifepristone because of concurrent use of other drugs, other medical conditions and treatments, and other unknowns.

Here in the real world, MAGA antiabortion policies are a profound threat to women. Between 2018 and 2020, the maternal mortality rate increased nearly twice as fast in states with abortion restrictions and by 2020 was 62% higher in “abortion-restriction” states than in “abortion-access” states.

Meanwhile, post-Dobbs, we hear countless heart wrenching stories of pregnant women bleeding out in emergency room parking lots, approaching death, and experiencing trauma and infertility after being denied health care. The maternal death toll has yet to be calculated. 

Americans are rejecting the MAGA forced birth ethos. Women under 45 now view abortion as the single most important election issue, and a growing number of people want abortion to be legal in all or most cases. Trump’s flip-flopping on abortion shows he is keenly aware of the peril it poses to his re-election.

MAGA Republicans are fond of calling themselves the pro-life party. In truth, Republicans are the pro-misogyny party.