I agree. The Democrats in Washington State rode that issue very hard even though it’s a strawman argument in this state. Tiffany Smiley should have beat Patty Murray. She was superior in every way, but she had an ill-defined position on abortion rights. As you point out, so did too many other GOP candidates nationwide in 2022.

IMO, the national GOP has to make it clear that they do not want to ban abortion because banning it does not end it. It only drives it underground and into back alleys. Legal, safe, and as rare as possible should be the mantra.

The GOP should also try to ban federal funds to Planned Parenthood and make sure Pregnancy Crisis Centers have equal standing with PP in the community. If they can’t ban federal funds to PP, then federal funds should go to Pregnancy Crisis Centers as well.

The GOP should also stand up for the role of birth control and responsible sex as being the path to reducing unwanted pregnancies.

The national GOP needs to get this issue right if they want to increase their vote in 2024.

What individual states do may vary, as we have seen. But that is for those states to thrash that out as their citizens’ desire. As you point out, abortion rights are an important issue for many women voters.

There is a new group that has come on the scene in the last 30 years–the Catholic Leadership introducing/indoctrinating young students to Liberation Theology. This ideology is as communist as you can imagine. It’s too bad the old Jesuits have died off. Those who run those universities are nothing at all what the old intellectuals were–those men understood why America was the best hope for humanity. The new leadership at Jesuit Universities believe that finding a balance somewhere between Russia, China, and Sweden ideologies is the best place! AND, the new students and scholars are not made to do the heavy reading–the heavy lifting of serious study in order to understand why this new ideology is not the best! They just have to “do what they are told” and mimic the lecture. All they want is the next best job. So many people in America waiting in the wings to do “just a little dirty deed” in order to get a better life for their loved ones and themselves. Someone has to start talking to the women. We are a long way from fully comprehending how extensive the system of “flunkies–flunkettes” has become.

“A blanket program of equality—aka equity—in all the realms of life, work, and remuneration is inevitably destined to fail. In provoking an attitude of discontent and endemic jealousy of those who have, in one way or another, been legitimately favored through individual initiative, a society works against its own best interests. Even if an enlightened state has provided for skill, virtuosity, drive, and competence to be rewarded, and even though First World grudge-bearers may enjoy the necessities and comforts that the truly dispossessed in the Third World sadly lack, the socialist project for omnibus equality at the expense of individual freedom will find us, as Friedrich Hayek memorably put it, on “the road to serfdom.” A central authority that controls our position in the social hierarchy irrespective of individual qualities, inclinations, or desires leads to a pervasive state of languor and indolence, and renders it “impossible to be just.” Hayek notes that “Independence of mind or strength of character is rarely found among those who cannot be confident that they will make their way by their own effort.”

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2023/08/18/no-quality-in-socialist-equality-n1720457

I think any fair appraisal of GOP political malpractice after the Dobbs decision makes that very unlikely. Women are marching to the polls in some very red states to assure their rights to abortion The GOP has provided no counter proposals except extreme limitation or elimination of abortion rights. Remember that 20-25 vote HR majority the GOP was supposed to get in the 2022 election? It turned into a five seat majority. and both houses of the Michigan legislature flipped to Dem for the first time in 40 years. An extremely strong pro-abortion rights amendment to the Michigan Constitution was adopted. KS, OH, MI, MN and others all saw pro-abortion rights votes last year.

From talking to my friends, I believe that even women who have grave reservations about abortion still want to have the ultimate choice in their hands, and they will vote to reserve that right if given a chance. The GOP is completely missing the boat on this.

The Cheneys, well-meaning and well connected, have taken us to some very bad places with very good intentions. I don’t think any of them have learned a thing.

Believe me, I’m well aware of that. As I said, I have relatives that fit that description. My contemporaries among them are the second-generation red diaper babies. Some are quite active leftists and Marxists. Some are not.