Seeking to repair the damage he did to himself among the party faithful during the immigration reform debate, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has agreed to be the lead sponsor of the “fetal-pain” ban on abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy. This is the new cause of the pro-life movement, and they have already passed bills in several states and in the House of Representatives. It’s an anti-science bill, since doctors say that a 20-week old fetus cannot experience pain. But the Republicans are emboldened by polling that says that the majority of the people oppose abortions in the second trimester.
A Gallup survey in January found that 64 percent of Americans think an abortion in the second three months of pregnancy should be illegal. As for the last three months, 80 percent feel an abortion that late should be banned.
I think the Republicans put too much emphasis on poll numbers like these. Poll questions never reflect the specific circumstances that might lead a woman to seek an abortion past twenty weeks. In almost all cases, there are significant medical or psychological reasons for abortions that take place that late. And if you polled people on the specific cases, you would get a different result.
But, more than that, the public is broadly supportive of choice, and making yourself the face of one more effort to encroach on women’s rights is unlikely to redound to your benefit. Many on the right are cynical enough to see Rubio as being a naked opportunist who is only pushing this bill to repair his position with the base. But, insofar as this gambit works, the gains Rubio makes with the base will be offset by his losses with the general public. I don’t think the details of the bill really matter.
Wish someone could put out for the public exactly what the Roe v. Wade decision says. The demagoguery of this issue is stupendous.
Rubio is pitching to Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio. Count up those numbers.
For our purposes here, it’s Casey that controls:
How much lower is the threshold of viability in 2013 than in 1992?
I’m not sure that it has changed.
I have an in-law who is a nurse on staff at the new born intensive care unit of a hospital. So basically she takes care of premature babies. According to her, if the baby is not at least 25 weeks, no life-saving measures are attempted.
So there’s an answer.
If these laws are going to pass, and they will in several states, then the ACA should compensate by mandating that free fetal DNA testing is covered by all insurances at minimal expense to prospective parents. That way they don’t need to wait until their 18-20 week ultrasound to find out about any developmental abnormalities.
For what it’s worth, I think the ultrasound timing is exactly wby the prolifers are going at this deadline. It’s a shot across the bow. We need to roll them back, eventually.
I believe he’ll also be required to don a hair-shirt for the remainder of his term.
I wonder if it comes in brown?
He could start a fashion trend – brown-shirted Conservative politicians, just itching and scratching to do still more damage to this country.
Rubio is a clown who will make more latino voters for the Democrats.