Republicans’ amped-up focus on late term abortions has brought new energy to the issue for their conservative base — forcing Democrats to respond to rhetoric about infanticide
Republicans’ amped-up focus on so-called late term abortions has brought new energy to the issue for their conservative base —The GOP plans to keep at the message through the 2020 election, even if they lose the battle in Congress to pass a “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors” bill, H.
R. 962, that abortion-rights advocates warn could add new pain to already wrenching medical decisions. Under criticism, Republicans' language has only continued to escalate, including President Donald Trump’sDemocrats are “taking a barbaric position,” said Rep. Steve Scalise , the No. 2 Republican in the House. “It's a radical far-left shift they’ve taken and, frankly, most Americans are sickened by that.” So far the tactics aren’t swaying Democrats, who are highly unified around abortion rights and accuse the GOP of spreading inflammatory misinformation. To redirect the conversation, they hope to focus on aspects of women’s health where they are on more solid ground — for instance by, attacking the Trump administration’s recent move tomaking it a felony for a doctor to harm or neglect an infant who survives an attempted abortion.Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox.By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. “This is red meat to their base,” Sen. Mazie Hirono said of Republicans pushing the bill. “They just continue to put out these kinds of factually wrong anti-choice amendments and bills. So we have to continue to fight back.”argue that current law already protects infants, and that Republicans are creating a false narrative about doctors routinely allowing healthy, full-term babies to die, when in fact abortions late in pregnancy are rare and most involve severe fetal anomalies or risks to the life of the mother. Under the legislation, they warn, doctors could risk a felony conviction if they don’t hospitalize and resuscitate a newborn who is only going to live for a few hours, possibly in pain. Supporters openly admit the “Born Alive” bill, S. 311, has no chance of passage in the current Congress, but they will keep pushing the legislation, using graphic narratives about violence against newborns. Some of the imagery is reminiscent of the battle — which Republicans ultimately won a decade ago — to outlaw so-called partial birth abortion. Republican leaders and conservative advocacy groups say this new fight is an effective way to hammer Democrats and burnish their own credentials leading up to 2020, after recent years in which the GOP struggled to made headway with anti-abortion legislation. Speakers at this week's Conservative Political Action Conference railed against “infanticide.” Trump hasof the Union address, at the National Prayer Breakfast and at recent rallies. And on Capitol Hill, supporters are pushing for more votes on the "born alive" bill, hoping to keep the issue in the public eye and drive a wedge through the Democratic Party. “It’s important to have this vote as many times as we possibly can, and we believe Leader [Mitch] McConnell will allow that to happen,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion-rights Susan B. Anthony List. “We play to win, but even if we come up short, it’s worth it because we need to show where they [Democrats] stand. The way this works is that you start to peel people off who are really feeling the heat back home, and they will feel the heat back home.”Only three Democratic senators broke ranks to support the billwho favor abortion rights. It’s a dramatic change from both the “partial birth abortion” battle of the 1990s and early-2000s, and the fight a decade ago over the Affordable Care Act, in which moderate Democrats nearly derailed passage of the health care law over concerns about abortion coverage.
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