WTF, Florida? No, wait! I mean Arizona.
Trump's "sincere" concern about the abortion ban in Arizona
I’ve been working on a post about Florida and getting way behind because I’m trying to use some cool charts from Power BI and then Arizona goes back to the good old days of the Civil War and my head explodes.
So, I’m just going to do a short post about Arizona.
Reporters on Wednesday asked Trump if he thought the decision by the Supreme Court in Arizona went too far and he literally said “Yeah they did, and that will be straightened out.”
He went on…“As you know, it’s all about states’ rights,” saying he believes Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) will “bring it back into reason.”
Arizona’s Supreme Court upheld the 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions. The only exception is the health of the mother and we have seen in other states that that means letting the health of the mother deteriorate significantly before a doctor who is terrified of losing their license or going to prison decides she really needs an abortion to avoid permanent injury or death.
Trump’s statement shows that he doesn’t understand state legislation. Giving the decision about the legality of abortion back to the states didn’t mean everybody in the state got to vote on abortion. It meant that whatever laws were on the books before Roe was decided in 1973 could be enacted. As an aside, note that women did not have voting rights when the Arizona law was enacted, so they most certainly did not vote for it. Many states did not protect abortion rights because they didn’t have to. It was protected at the federal level under Roe. Arizona is one of these states.
He mentions Katie Hobbs, the Governor (D) of Arizona, as if he is putting this all on her. If she cannot fix it, even though that is not in her power, then a Democrat is at fault.
Here’s my biggest problem with his statement.
He says Arizona went too far. Arizona’s law, once in effect, totally bans abortions other than for the health of the mother.
14 other states also have total bans on abortion. Look at the following chart and see if you can figure out why he hasn’t mentioned the other 14 states with total bans.
You probably figured it out, but the 14 other states with total bans all voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He thinks all of the Republicans in these states will vote for him in 2024, so he doesn’t give a shit what the law is there, regardless of the fact that there might be Republicans in these states who aren’t happy with the total bans.
He’s only criticizing Arizona because it is a swing state that actually went for Biden in 2020.
He is worried about Republican voters in Arizona who actually support abortion rights possibly voting against him in 2024. He thinks those Republican voters in Arizona are so stupid that if he just says he disagrees with the law in Arizona that they will think he is capable of changing it for them. But, wait! The judges he put on the Supreme Court are the ones who overturned Roe. He proudly claims that he is the one who overturned Roe. Ask him what exactly he could or would do as president to fix what is going on in Arizona.
Now, back to fuming about Florida……stay tuned…..
As usual, links to my favorite substacks:
And a new one I really like that you can listen to as well as read. Andra Watkins has read through the bazillion pages of the Project 2025 manifesto, so you don’t have to.
Data on Bans and Exceptions from:
AbortionFinder.org Guttmacher Institute Kaiser Family Foundation