Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, sees the rhetorical writing on the wall amid Republicans facing political blowback from Americans nationwide for the party’s maneuvering on abortion.
Despite occasional attempts by figures like Donald Trump himself to create some distance from the more aggressive versions of abortion restrictions, it’s Republicans who fueled the political movements that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s Republican state legislators who’ve subsequently used the opportunities for legislating left by that reversal to put many millions of Americans under sharp restrictions blocking access to health care that for decades was widely available.
Some of the evident second-guessing from Republicans has come after an Arizona court ruled in favor of a very old (meaning mid-19th century-old) abortion ban. Trump and the southwestern state’s Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake have been among those speaking out against the developments.
Lieu was responding in recent days to coverage on social media of Lake’s evident flip-flopping. “Roe v. Wade prevented states like Arizona from enacting restrictive abortion bans. Trump and Republicans bragged about eliminating Roe v. Wade. Now Trump and Republicans are in full panic mode over the tyranny they have unleashed,” he said on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.
Though Trump recently released a widely circulated statement professing an abortion stance that prioritizes states setting their own paths on access to the procedure, he also expresses pride in the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, with which they moved forward with three of Trump’s nominees on the bench (out of just nine members). The discrepancy erodes any prospect of Trump using his supposed “states’ rights” stance to claim some kind of neutrality. Besides, some have also pointed out that trying to take a hands-off approach in that manner gives support by default to the Republicans pursuing state-level restrictions, some of which have moved forward without even exceptions for situations involving rape and incest.
