Brian Karem talks to a few D.C. insiders on the new law
In the end, President Donald Trump wants you to know he’s a pro-life president. While the administration doesn’t make a habit of speaking about legislation passed in any of the 50 states, deputy press secretary Judd Deere offered the following statement on behalf of the Trump administration after Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion bill in the country: “Unlike radical Democrats who have cheered legislation allowing a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth, President Trump is protecting our most innocent and vulnerable, defending the dignity of life, and called on Congress to prohibit late-term abortions.”
The senior administration official I spoke with earlier in the day wasn’t so sanguine. In fact, the Trump administration employee was a bit snarky and angry. “Considering his past, you have to wonder how he could support such restrictions when it seems totally contradictory to his previous lifestyle,” I was told.
The truth is Alabama’s abortion ban (HB 314) is exactly what the far right envisioned when evangelicals voted to get Donald Trump in office. Senator Mitch McConnell stonewalled the placement of a Supreme Court Justice during the final year of Barack Obama’s administration in order to place someone more friendly to the cause. Neil Gorsuch was the justice who replaced Antonin Scalia and seemed ready made for the faithful. When the fates aligned to allow Brett Kavanaugh a seat on the bench, replacing the retiring Anthony Kennedy, those evangelicals and tight-asses who thought the rapture was commencing jumped for joy.
Lawmakers in red states, meanwhile, have been working to unravel the landmark Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision for years. Alabama, a state once described by late comedian Richard Pryor as a place that scares even white people, has been one of the first to jump on the medieval express train to hell, passing legislation that would force women to choose unsafe alternatives or carry to term pregnancies from rape or incest. But Georgia and Missouri are also on the train. Do not be naive: The wave of recent bills restricting abortion is a well-coordinated effort that’s been years in the making. These bills have been written to end up on the Supreme Court’s front door with the goal of overturning Roe v. Wade.
Trump himself probably would want abortions cheap and plentiful if he needed to avail himself of that service.
Most of the 25 men who voted for the Human Life Protection Act, which makes it a felony for a woman to get an abortion in Alabama, have wives and children. Many of them are older and guess what, all 25 are white. There are a lot of men working overtime in Trump’s reign to give white guys a bad name and they’re doing a damn good job of it.
Oddly enough, some of those most upset about what men are doing appear to be the white men in the Trump administration. They won’t come forward; GOP members in the House and the Senate who secretly loathe Trump—and much of what he stands for—aren’t doing much more than griping behind closed doors. They have been surpassed in courage by the lowly televangelist Pat Robertson, who’s known to speak in tongues to his pets and who has said, “I think Alabama has gone too far.” But that hasn’t stopped the far right from going as far as they can. Giddy as kids on nitrous, as mentioned the Missouri legislature is considering similar legislation and the governor declared it’s the “will of the people.”
But the fact is that those in the Trump administration who haven’t been purged—or who quit, or run out of town for having an independent thought—are not nearly as supportive of the Alabama law as they are publicly. The true-believing evangelicals may include Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a few others, but there are an equal number of administration officials whose heads are in this century, and whose sensibilities don’t include keeping their women barefoot, pregnant and repentant.
“I often wonder if the Salem Witch Trials were like this,” a senior administration official told me over coffee. That I cannot say. But I can say this issue is particularly telling about the differences between Trump’s private and public persona. The Alabama legislation designed specifically to test Roe v. Wade shows that Trump is all about the win; all about the notch on the belt. He embraced the far right because the rabid folks on the far right will support him no matter what he does. His believers were so eager for someone to carry their torch into battle—much like the far left embraced Bernie over Hillary—that they chose someone who has almost none of the virtues they claim to possess. There is a certain irony in it—but the pain for women and our society remain obvious and for some overwhelming.
Christian charity doesn’t extend to those wanting an abortion. Women do not have control over their own reproductive health, organs or future. Old men are making the decisions for the young. That’s the world Trump may not necessarily want, but it is the one he’s creating.
At the end of the day, my friend in the administration may be right: Trump himself probably would want abortions cheap and plentiful if he needed to avail himself of that service. Who are we kidding? Of course he would. The real question is whether or not Donald Trump yet understands the forces he’s unleashed in his mad dash to capture the presidency. Or does he even care as long, as he gets re-elected?
