The GOP has a cynical plan to slowly turn you pro-life

The GOP is gradually acclimating America to an abortion-free landscape

Anti-abortion protest
(Image credit: (Alex Wong/Getty Images))

In his big-in-the-2000s analysis of the GOP What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank painted a picture of a two-faced Republican establishment that was all too willing to talk a big game in front of pro-life conservatives, but balked when it came to actually passing anti-abortion legislation. However true that analysis might have been when it was written in 2004, it's definitely false 10 years later. Not only does the GOP want the American public to join them in opposing reproductive rights, they have a cynical plan for getting there.

In the past few years, the abortion issue has been marked by increasing legislative clampdowns, with a cascade of laws exploding across the United States to restrict access to abortion services. Instead of trying for blanket bans on abortion — those futile charges that never worked — the GOP has been gradually acclimating America to an abortion-free landscape.

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s.e. smith is a writer, editor, and agitator from Northern California. smith works as the deputy opinion editor at The Daily Dot and the social justice editor at xoJane, with writing credits in publications like The Guardian, Bitch Magazine, AlterNet, Nerve, and Time.