Republicans: how misogynistic can they get? Very.

Some Republicans are loudly protesting that Of Course that 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio could have gotten an abortion legally under the state’s risk-to-the-mother exemption. Never mind that Indiana’s Republicans attorney general immediately launched an investigation into the doctor who provided the abortion, so apparently he doesn’t think it’s cut-and-dried (he describes her at the link as “an activist acting as a doctor” — no, she’s a doctor).

“Of course they would prefer that the story was a fiction. Admitting that the story was true would require admitting that there are some cases in which abortion is not only a necessity, it is a mercy. It is not only acceptable, it can be moral.” — Monica Hesse on why so many conservatives refused to admit a 10 year old rape victim needed an abortion. And New York Times to the contrary, there was no heated political debate, it was one side lying. Or casting needless suspicion on the story’s truth. Or Megan McArdle claiming that as only 52 under-14s got abortions in Ohio last year, it’s no big deal if underage girls can’t get abortions.

Lying, for example, that abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother (it often is). This is a common right-wing belief/claim and you know what? It makes me doubt they’ll be very supportive of anyone getting a life-saving abortion. Right-wing writer Georgi Boorman wrote that even ectopic pregnancies can be treated without abortion which is bullshit. She admitted later she was wrong but The Federalist still has the article on its website.

And now here comes Idaho Republican Scott Herndon who pushed for language in the state party platform declaring no exceptions, not even to save the mother. Herndon argued that making exceptions nullifies the force of their argument : “For the last 49 years we have essentially lost the argument in the culture because we have focused on abortion as the termination of a pregnancy and not the termination of a living human being.” And it’s the intentional taking of a life, which is never acceptable!

Newsflash, bozo: Your side has been screaming about it being murder for decades. And you’re losing the culture war because American culture accepts that abortion is moral. On Twitter, Herndon declares these claims about the platform are misinformation, but they aren’t. Presumably like so many Republican Death Cult politicians, he’s horrified at being caught out saying the quiet parts of abortion policy out loud.

Oh, and did you know Idaho is one of six states that allows parents to kill children by withholding medical care for religious reasons. Somehow I don’t see Herndon rushing to protect those innocent children. Herndon is quite right that the religious right is losing the culture war, but there’s a reason they get no respect.

In other misogynistic news:

Joe Biden has told doctors that federal law requires they provide medically necessary abortion and trumps state law. So Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing the feds. More detail here.