Former GOP congresswoman calls Texas abortion ban a 'bad policy and a bad law'
Texas' strict new abortion is law is receiving backlash from not only Democrats, but some members of the Republican Party, as well.
Take, for instance, former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who identifies as pro-life. On Sunday she appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, where she called the law, which allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks, a "blunder." Comstock's issue with the law is that it outsources enforcement to "private parties." She said she's "confident" that it ultimately won't stand because "it's bad policy and it's bad law," and she thinks there are voices within the GOP that can more effectively promote a pro-life agenda by "helping women with tough pregnancies and kids who have disabilities."
Later on Meet the Press, GOP strategist Brendan Buck also lambasted the "asinine" Texas law, which he argued could backfire on Republicans. "What stops a California from banning guns by saying you can sue anybody who owns one," he said. "There's nothing conservative about how this is set up."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Political cartoons for January 19Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Greenland tariffs, fighting the Fed, and more
-
Spain’s deadly high-speed train crashThe Explainer The country experienced its worst rail accident since 2013, with the death toll of 39 ‘not yet final’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
House approves ACA credits in rebuke to GOP leadersSpeed Read Seventeen GOP lawmakers joined all Democrats in the vote
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Vance’s ‘next move will reveal whether the conservative movement can move past Trump’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
The MAGA civil war takes center stage at the Turning Point USA conferenceIN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Americafest 2025’ was a who’s who of right-wing heavyweights eager to settle scores and lay claim to the future of MAGA
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
