By Dave Andrusko
Reuters calls it an “Exclusive” but only the most naïve would have expected anything less than “The White House jumping into state-level battles for women’s reproductive rights.”
Why a story now about action in the states? “One reason for the White House’s plans to push on abortion is that efforts in Congress to pass nationwide abortion protections have failed,” Nandita Bose reports. “And a lawsuit over abortion pills is being closely watched for its ‘impact on reproductive care.’”
You would have expected the team at the White House to divide the states into lost causes (“extremist”); “access battleground states” (states that could pass additional pro-life legislation); and “proactive states” (states in which abortion is firmly embed but pro-abortionists are looking for more draconian measures, such as passing an amendment to their state’s constitution).
Another is to buck up the spirits of local Democrats with talk about how much “behind the scenes” activity and to bolster the pro-abortion bona fides of Vice President Kamala Harris. For example, in Florida, state House Democratic leader Fentrice Driskell lavished praise.
“For the White House to reach out the way that it did, to say we’re here to be as much of a backstop as we can be, to provide whatever resources we can, to try to assemble and convene state and local leaders from all across the country, it has meant a lot,” Driskell said .
She said the White House’s work on issuing talking points and messaging has also been a “big help.”
As for Harris, we’re told that
The White House’s Gender Policy Council is spearheading the effort, along with an inter-governmental affairs team and Vice President Kamala Harris’s office, sources said.
And
Harris, who won praise from grassroots Democrats for her frequent defense of abortion rights during the midterm campaign, is a key part of the current White House effort.
This is an obvious puff piece for Democrats so you wouldn’t expect much about what Republicans are doing. But what there is very interesting. Bose writes
Republicans have largely shrugged off White House efforts at beating back efforts to limit abortion rights. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has urged affiliated lawmakers and campaigns to go on the offense on abortion.
When asked to comment about the White House’s latest initiative, the RNC pointed Reuters toward a resolution it passed at a meeting in January.
The resolution directed national and state lawmakers “to pass the strongest pro-life legislation possible” ahead of the 2024 election cycle, citing six-week abortion bans as an example.
And there you have it. “The previously unreported, behind-the-scenes effort” is still another in-kind contribution to the pro-abortion cause.