Another episode that raises the question – Are John Boehner (and Mitch McConnell) on track to preside over the demise of the Republican Party?
Republican leadership to 20 Week baby in the womb: Sorry, can’t help you. http://www.webmd.com/baby/ss/slideshow-fetal-development
First, understand that a ban on late term abortion has wide and deep public support. From Lifenews.com yesterday a report on the latest Marist Poll: 84% of Americans Want Late-Term Abortions Banned, Back Bill to Stop Them After 20 Weeks
A new poll released today indicates Americans strongly support legislation that would ban late-term abortions and protect babies who are capable of feeling intense pain during an abortion. *
The vast majority of Americans are still very uncomfortable with abortion, according to a new Marist University poll. The survey finds support for abortion restrictions among both “pro-life” and “pro-choice” supporters. Despite the strong support, President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the pro-life bill.
According to the national survey, 84% of Americans want significant restrictions on abortion, and would limit abortions to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy. This includes almost 7 in 10 (69 percent) who identify themselves as “pro-choice” who support such abortion limits and oppose late-term abortions.
And so what happens in John Boehner’s House? It is utterly pathetic.
From the Heritage Foundation today:
At Last Second, House GOP Leaders Ditch Effort to Pass Bill Limiting Abortion
David Harsanyi comments in this article in The Federalist:
If The GOP Can’t Pass A Late-Term Abortion Ban, What Can It Do?
Evidently, Republicans don’t feel competent enough to make a case against infanticide. Why else would the GOP pull its 20-week abortion limit bill?
Mollie Hemingway, also writing at the Federalist has much to say including these excerpts:
Why Everyone Should Be Terrified By The GOP’s Abortion Bill Debacle
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court legalizing abortion on demand throughout pregnancy. . . . Pro-lifers were promised by the Republican leaders they just helped elect and re-elect that the House of Representatives would pass a bill today banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. . . .
. . . Instead of passing the legislation and sending it to the Republican-controlled Senate, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act was pulled at the last minute and replaced with a bill that bans taxpayer funding of abortion. . . .
If Republicans can’t pass wildly popular legislation protecting innocent unborn children, what’s going to happen when they face difficult legislative battles? . . .
In an essay at National Affairs, Michael Needham looks at the contrast between the grassroots and party establishment. He talks about the fight over the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a fund for corporate welfare. The establishment fought against the grassroots tooth and nail in order to keep the bank. There have been similar fights over agriculture subsidies and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s influence in the housing market. The moneyed interests fight against the conservative insurgents — and the donor class usually wins. Needham asks:
Given the enormous challenges facing the nation, why bother with “small” issues like corporate welfare and concomitant insider politics? Why pick these fights with the donor base? As the Tea Party sees it, if conservatives can’t stand up for sound policy on “easy” fights like these — despite their relative insignificance compared to issues like entitlement reform — the Republican Party is unlikely to have the fortitude to take on the greatest challenges the country faces. . . .
Two of the representatives who caused the biggest stink about the bill were Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Jackie Walorski of Indiana. . . .
These women are claiming to all of a sudden be concerned about the (rape) reporting requirement — the requirement that has nearly two-to-one support among voters and the one they had no problem with just a couple of years ago. This reporting requirement would keep late-term abortion doctors like Kermit Gosnell or Leroy Carhart from simply checking a box before going ahead with the procedure. …
Pro-lifers aren’t unfamiliar with such betrayals but as more and more grassroots voters are learning that the Republican Party is loyal to corporate interests when it counts while giving weak lipservice to the base when it doesn’t, the rift widens.
They have zero public relations skills. . . .
Only Republicans could take a bill with two-to-one support and manufacture headlines about it being controversial and opposed by women .. . .
The leadership needs to fix their internal and external communications and do some remedial training for members who need basic advice such as, “do not shoot yourself in the foot,” and “do not needlessly anger the one group of Americans not livid with us at the moment.” Maybe even, “learn how to do a power play that doesn’t take down your whole party with you.”
Mollie Hemingway’s article has much much more to say including a number of quotes from other political observers. Highly recommended. R Mall
* Unborn children demonstrably respond to pain and other sensations at much earlier stages, repelling from the abortionists forceps and scalpel. Twenty weeks is a political demarcation and in anticipation of evaluation by the current make-up of the Supreme Court. More information, indeed that pain receptors may be more sensitive in the unborn, is available here (PDF file from National Right to Life Committee).
