One unintended side-effect of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade — or, rather, the aftermath of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade — is that people are increasingly reticent about identifying themselves as being anti-abortion. Even Donald Trump has been falling all over himself trying to claim that he is a moderate on abortion.
Hell, when we were at the DNC, I went to a ridiculous anti-abortion protest led by Live Action and those fetus freaks what stole the fetuses from that Washington DC abortion clinic and kept them in little Igloo coolers, and there were maybe 15 people there, total. I’ve seen bigger crowds at an abortion clinic on a Tuesday.
It’s like they’re even embarrassed to be around themselves. Which is not to say that they’re not a threat, because they’re absolutely still a threat. As long as people are dying because they can’t get abortion care, these people (and Donald Trump) remain a threat.
That being said, Congressman John Duarte, who represents California’s 13th Congressional District — a Democratic-leaning swing district — has started to really walk the line and now says that both he and Donald Trump are totally pro-choice! You know, just so long as you don’t mean “pro-choice” in the same way that anyone has used it in the last 50 odd years.
Via Jezebel:
“I am pro-choice. I believe the president [Trump] is functionally pro-choice,” Duarte, who’s in a hotly contested rematch against Gray for California’s 13th, said. “He wants the states to make their policy themselves, he doesn’t want to federalize abortion law, and neither do I.” CNN pressed Duarte, pointing out that Trump “opposes abortion rights,” to which Duarte lied, “No he doesn’t. He says—states are moving towards abortion rights one-by-one. The Dobbs decision put it back in the states. I believe abortion belongs in the states.” The CNN reporter then clarifies, “So, you supported the Dobbs decision but you’re pro-choice?” Duarte answers, “I’m pro-choice.”
Yes, Duarte has decided that “pro-choice” means letting the states choose, not the actual people who happen to be pregnant. Is it possible that this 58-year-old adult man has gone his whole life thinking that this is the definition of pro-choice? That seems unlikely!
The fact is, he represents a relatively liberal area in California and doesn’t want to lose his next election because he knows the people won’t want to elect anyone who opposes abortion.
Meanwhile, last year Duarte voted in favor of the ridiculous Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act For People Who Haven’t Bothered To Look Into How Anything Actually Works and in favor of another bill that would have made abortion pills illegal … across the nation.
So much for even his own very stupid definition of “pro-choice!”
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
This is such a bullshit argument.
States do not get to decide human rights.
And there is no argument for why this should stop at the state level instead of devolve down to county or city government. Or why it should stop at a city government instead of the individual.
The only reason is "Because we control 20-something state legislatures and are so gerrymandered and entrenched that we get to do what we want and fuck you."
So, if they're changing the definition of "pro-choice," maybe we should change the definition of "pro-life" to mean "we don't want women to die waiting for treatments until they crash and are beyond medical assistance."