On Abortion, Trump Splits the Baby
April 8: Trump abortion policy … 15-week ban expected … Eclipse day! … Brazil investigates Musk …
(Editor’s Note: Obviously, almost as soon as today’s TFN went out, Trump released a video that didn’t quite meet expectations. I’ll have details in an upcoming TFN…)
D4FRFP1 Donald Trump is expected today to announce his position on abortion, in case anyone missed the fact that he appointed three Supreme Court judges who overturned abortion rights in 2022.
Ever since a Florida court allowed the state to ban abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, a ban set to take effect May 1, Trump has been pushed to deliver a formal statement on what kind of national ban he would sign if he becomes represident.
Trump has said he has a plan which will “make both sides happy,” leading observers to ask, “Have you met both sides?”
Trump has publicly suggested that pregnant people shouldn’t be allowed to murder their precious babies until after the 15th week of pregnancy. But they can go ahead and murder their sweet, precious, unborn, undifferentiated babies all day long before 15 weeks.
And Trump “wrote” on his failing social-media platform that “I, and most other Republicans, believe in EXCEPTIONS for Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother.”
But the real question here is whether Trump’s expected 15-week ban would also establish a federal right to abortion, overturning state bans on abortion before then.
If not, all Trump will end up doing is pretty much freezing the status quo like a teeny, tiny IVF embryo. And that won’t erase the Republican political reality that everyone else hates abortion bans.
The unlikely alternative, however — enshrining the right to an abortion up until 15 weeks — would mean Trump is still permitting an estimated 90% of all abortions, which is ironic because that’s roughly how many abortions Trump is believed to be personally responsible for. It would also really really piss off a ton of Trump’s evangelical base.
In his announcement today, Trump is not expected to address potential problems with his exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The exception for rape, in particular, presents a serious conflict of interest for Trump, who rapes. Trump also has an estimated 88% chance of incest. If not yet, then eventually.
Allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy would present another conflict for Trump, because his hands, too, are also not fully developed.
Overall, Trump’s new approach to the issue is looking to be remarkably old school, and by “school” I mean “testament.” In addition to channeling Solomon’s extraordinarily bad mediation skills, Trump yesterday got all Abraham on abortion. He said precious babies in uteruses must be sacrificed for their god, who is him.
As Trump explained, “...we have an obligation to the salvation of our Nation, which is currently in serious DECLINE, TO WIN ELECTIONS…” In other words, electing him is so important, evangelicals should shut their proselytization holes and flush away 90% of sweet, precious, unborn babies.
Among the wildly untrue things Trump has said about abortion politics, even on a Trump-recalibrated scale of “wildly untrue”:
“People are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.”
“All the legal scholars on both sides agree: It’s a state issue. It shouldn’t be a federal issue.”
“We’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”
Evangelicals are showing some signs that even on this signature issue, they’re willing to cut Trump some umbilical slack. Penny Nance, president of the right-wing, theocracy-inclined Concerned Women for America, told Politico, “The reality is that I have to convince people that it’s a baby at 16 weeks before I’m going to convince them that it’s a baby at six weeks.”
But America has now spent almost two years sliding down that particular slippery slope. And thanks to Trump unleashing red states to show people what a 15-week ban looks like, most people, 54%, now oppose it.
The number of Republicans who support making abortion legal in virtually every circumstance — unless the fetus itself opposes it verbally and in writing — has increased by 50% in just two years.
Now, an estimated 36% of Republicans support almost total abortion rights, up from 24% before Trump’s Supreme Court justices helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Here’s how Trump has supercharged America’s love of abortion rights, courtesy of Politico:
As Politico notes, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) tried exactly this move last year, pinning the state’s entire Republican campaign on a 15-week ban as “commonsense.” Republicans lost control of the state legislature.
What I’m guessing Trump won’t address is what a hypothetical second Trump administration would do to make legal abortion harder to get and more rare. Like clamping down on abortifacients, now used in most abortions. Or making life difficult for remaining abortion providers.
Fittingly, because Trump became the presumptive nominee on March 12, today’s announcement would be in compliance with his proposed new ban, since it will abort his general-election campaign at only four weeks old. Before it even has a brain.
GOP Savior’s Abortion Capitulation Triggers Premature Delivery of End Times
The moon will blot out the sun today, just as we’ve known it would since we got some decent science going (albeit thousands of years late; thanks, religion!) Today’s eclipse doesn’t mean the end times are here, it means light can’t pass through moons. And sense can’t penetrate morons.
Brazil Investigates Musk
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice said last night that Twitter CEO Elon Musk is now under investigation for alleged obstruction of justice, incitement of violence, and disseminating fake news as part of a “disinformation campaign.”
Musk on Saturday said that Twitter (I mean X, sorry/not sorry) would refuse to comply with court orders to block some accounts; the court is investigating an entire network of “digital militias” who’ve waged an online campaign against the court, inciting violence with made-up bullshit, for instance.
Sound familiar? Well, Brazil even had its own Jan. 6, which came on Jan. 8, 2023, due to foreign exchange rates.
Musk said on Saturday that refusing to carry out the court-ordered blocks of some accounts could lead Twitter to shut down in Brazil, giving Musk a handy, martyry excuse for Twitter’s plunging profits.
“Principles matter more than profit,” Musk wrote, even though Republicans have quashed corporate initiatives for diversity and/or Earth by arguing that publicly held companies aren’t allowed to sacrifice shareholder profit for principles, even ones that benefit Musk.
TCB
NEW REPORTING I spent most of Sunday working on a new story related to the Ukraine military-funding battle. And looking for Eclipse glasses. But mostly the Ukraine stuff. (That’s why today’s TFN is a little short. I’m sorry!)
I don’t have a smoking gun on this one, but I do have a gun. And smoke. Coming out of the gun.
And you can help me to keep doing this stuff by becoming a paid subscriber. Although I’ll understand if you want to wait to see the story, first. Fucking empiricism.
Oh, and if I finish the story in time, you can hear me talk about it tonight…
NICOLE SANDLER Catch my discussion tonight with Nicole Sandler on The Nicole Sandler Show, hosted by Nicole Sandler, on the weekly, Monday segment that Nicole Sandler likes to call “The Fucking News.” You can catch it at 5pm eastern time.
As I mentioned last week, TFN is live on Instagram. I and/or TFN are also up on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Mastodon and Spoutible — please ping me if you share my work on any of those platforms. And even if you don’t come say hi, anyway.
Now go get ‘em, kids…!
D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.
Love "unidentified" woman. Larsen has a gift for comedy.
'I mean X".
In the spirit of D4FRFP, I suggest TPFKAT: The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.