{"id":32222,"date":"2024-09-04T17:33:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T17:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=32222"},"modified":"2024-09-04T17:33:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T17:33:20","slug":"sen-graham-on-trumps-dangerous-dance-on-abortion-were-playing-with-real-bullets-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/sen-graham-on-trumps-dangerous-dance-on-abortion-were-playing-with-real-bullets-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Graham on Trump’s Dangerous Dance on Abortion: ‘We’re Playing with Real Bullets Here’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Suzanne Bowdey, originally published August 31, 2024, The Washington Stand<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one is happier to watch Donald Trump dig the hole deeper on the issue of abortion than the mainstream media. After his\u00a0dismissive comments<\/a>\u00a0about federal protections for the unborn and his\u00a0tone-deaf tweet<\/a>\u00a0on \u201creproductive rights,\u201d the press has been all too content to widen the split between the former president and his pro-life base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Thursday interview with NBC News, Trump, a Floridian, was asked how he would vote on his state\u2019s radical Amendment 4, a ballot initiative that would overturn the popular heartbeat bill signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and expand abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy. \u201cThe six week [law] is too short,\u201d he\u00a0replied<\/a>. \u201cIt has to be more time. \u2026 I\u2019ve told them that I want more weeks.\u201d When pressed to answer the original question, Trump said simply, \u201cI am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks\u201d \u2014 a response that many took as an endorsement of the extreme proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sensing that the former president had stepped on\u00a0another policy landmine<\/a>, his campaign rushed out a statement clarifying that Trump \u201chas not yet said how we will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.\u201d \u201cHe simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,\u201d Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted. Later, Trump alleviated some fears,\u00a0stating<\/a>, \u201cI will be voting no on Amendment 4.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the attempt at damage control didn\u2019t seem to placate his already confused and reeling base. His longtime golf buddy and friend Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is just as perplexed as the rest of the conservative movement that the president whose administration achieved more for the unborn than anyone in history seems to be walking a tightrope with the voters who got him elected. \u201cThis is an important moment here \u2014 not only for him,\u201d the South Carolina senator said, \u201cbut for the pro-life movement.\u201d Look, he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday\u2019s \u201cThis Week on the Hill<\/a>,\u201d \u201cTrump was a good pro-life president. He put three Supreme Court justices on the court who understood that Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional.\u201d But let\u2019s be clear about one thing, Graham went on, \u201cThe court did not say that only the states can protect the unborn. That\u2019s not a good reading of the Dobbs decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he meant, of course, is that there\u2019s a slew of federal legislation that impacts abortion \u2014 especially when it comes to taxpayer funding of the procedure here and abroad, our involvement with Planned Parenthood, military and veterans\u2019 affairs policy, even the mailing of mifepristone to pro-life states. Not to mention that there are already plenty of critical laws on the books thanks to Congress, like the partial-birth abortion ban and unborn victims of violence legislation \u2014 both of which would be in jeopardy if Republicans decided the party no longer had a role in this debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham believes there has to be a point of consensus where Americans \u2014 who overwhelmingly oppose abortion after the first trimester \u2014 can come together and create a national threshold. \u201cMy bill, which you have supported and I appreciate very much, says there comes a point in the development of the unborn child that we should limit abortion-on-demand, [with] exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. What do we know about a child at 15 weeks of development? Their nerve endings are well intact. They feel pain.\u201d And while the Left likes to paint Republicans as extreme for trying to establish any sort of threshold, the reality, Graham pointed out, is that \u201cEuropean nations limit abortion between 12 and 15 weeks. So what I\u2019ve been trying to do with you and others is to wake America up to the idea that late-term abortions are barbaric, and we don\u2019t want to be like China or North Korea. No matter where you\u2019re conceived in our country, at 15 weeks, you still feel pain, whether it\u2019s California or South Carolina, and we should have some national minimum standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m taking some wild position here,\u201d he continued. \u201cSeventy percent of Americans believe we should begin to limit abortion-on-demand after 12 weeks.\u201d And yet, the amendment in Florida and the position of the Democratic Party is to allow the taking of human life right up to delivery (and,\u00a0based on two votes in the House<\/a>, after the baby is born).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Florida\u2019s current law, the limit on abortion is six weeks, which is when the baby\u2019s heartbeat develops. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not alone,\u201d Perkins pointed out. \u201cThere are several other states with the same threshold.\u201d Under Amendment 4, which Graham called \u201ca fraud,\u201d the loopholes are big enough to \u201cmarch the entire military through [them].\u201d So there are no limits. \u201cIt is the Kamala Harris position,\u201d Graham reiterated. \u201cIf you vote for Amendment 4, if you vote to overturn the six-week heartbeat bill and implement Amendment 4, you\u2019re voting for the Kamala Harris position of abortion-on-demand without limits up to birth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even President Trump \u201ccriticizes the Democrats \u2014 rightly so \u2014 that they would allow abortion without limit up to the moment of birth. And even after in the Virginia situation, that distinction is real.\u201d The senator was referring to former Governor Ralph Northam,\u00a0who openly condoned infanticide<\/a>. \u201cLess than 20% of Americans support abortion-on-demand late-term in the eighth and ninth month. So if you vote for that amendment, you\u2019re losing that distinction,\u201d Graham insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what he wishes President Trump would do on this issue, his friend replied, \u201cNumber one, keep the contrast. Kamala Harris has supported federal legislation that would override every state law on the books on parental consent, all limitations.\u201d Under her administration, \u201cIt would be a federal law implementing abortion-on-demand up to the moment of birth, as the law of the land. We would be like China. President Trump says he wants the states to decide this issue. Well, to the pro-life world, Kamala Harris would impose from Washington an abortion-on-demand up to the moment of birth policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perkins interjected that none of this is hypothetical. \u201cThey\u2019ve actually already introduced this bill, the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act, which passed one chamber under [former Speaker] Nancy Pelosi in the House. So this is real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely, Graham agreed. \u201cWe\u2019re playing with real bullets here, pal. \u2026 I, along with all of my Republican colleagues [with the exception of Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski] have fought the idea of turning America into China.\u201d And if the GOP wants to win this election, he urged, \u201cWill somebody please, in my lifetime, ask Kamala Harris, \u2018At what week would you limit abortion?\u2019 They just say, \u2018At viability.\u2019 They won\u2019t give you what week that is, and the media gives them a pass. Here\u2019s what I would like President Trump to say, \u2018The Florida Amendment, Amendment 4, is Kamala Harris\u2019s abortion position, [and] I reject that. I may not like six weeks, but I\u2019m sure not going to bless in my home state of Florida a law that would be like Kamala Harris\u2019s national law.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, Graham told voters, \u201cPlease, please understand this. Our friends in Florida, if you vote for this amendment, you will make Florida like China. There will be no protection for the unborn child. And that is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Suzanne Bowdey, originally published August 31, 2024, The Washington Stand No one is happier to watch Donald Trump dig the hole deeper on the issue of abortion than the mainstream media. After his\u00a0dismissive comments\u00a0about federal protections for the unborn and his\u00a0tone-deaf tweet\u00a0on \u201creproductive rights,\u201d the press has been all too content to widen the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSen. 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