Donald Trump is contemplating endorsing a 15-week abortion ban and Wednesday’s Inside Politics on CNN was eager to denounce it as extreme. In particular, senior political analyst Nia-Malika Henderson portrayed it and Trump’s language on the issue as “very cavalier” and “very callous.”
Host Dana Bash hyped the idea that Democrats want Trump to endorse such a plan because they could use it against him “In states like Michigan, for example, where in 2022, the last election, they put a constitutional right to an abortion on the ballot and it won.”
She continued, “What you're going to see from Democrats in a swing state like that is 'oh, you know, you voted your, you each voted for this right, and now you're going to have a president if you elect Donald Trump, who is going to supersede that with a national law.' And they think, Democrats think that kind of fear will get people out to the polls.”
Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona began her response with a curious claim, “And Trump also is taking credit for overturning Roe v. Wade. So, he's had to try to have it both ways.”
How so? The Mississippi law before the Supreme Court in Dobbs was a 15-week ban because such restrictions were not permissible under Roe or Casey. That error aside, Zanona echoed Bash’s sentiment about Democrats seeking to portray 15-weeks as extreme, “It's interesting though, because privately he has said, according to our colleagues, that he does not see abortion as a political winner. So, it's interesting to hear him now laying the groundwork for taking a stance, but you're so right Dana, no matter what he does, Democrats are going to try to seize on this issue and try to link all Republicans to a national federal abortion ban, which they believe is not going to play well for Republicans.”
Of course, there is a difference between a “national federal abortion ban” and restricting abortion to 15 weeks, but Democrats are also probably betting that the media will help them obscure that difference.
Henderson then jumped in to condemn Trump for his stance, “part of it is just the way he talks about abortion, right? I mean that it's this big deal when, you know, you get an abortion at 13 weeks, well maybe it's 14 weeks, I mean this is people's lives, right?”
Dismissing any discussion about week limitations would make Henderson the radical, but she continued in her efforts to portray Trump as the cold-hearted extremist, “These are women. It's women's bodies. And they feel some kind of way about these politicians who are trying to enter into these very private, private decisions about whether or not they want to start a family or have a bigger family and so I think it's his language, it's very cavalier. It's very callous.”
If thinking through how many weeks abortion should be permitted is “callous,” the logical end point is that there should be no limits at all, which the media is constantly telling us is a strawman.
Here is a transcript for the March 20 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
3/20/2024
12:12 PM ET
DANA BASH: In states like Michigan, for example, where in 2022, the last election, they put a constitutional right to an abortion on the ballot and it won. So, it is now in Michigan law. What you're going to see from Democrats in a swing state like that is “oh, you know, you voted your, you each voted for this right, and now you're going to have a president if you elect Donald Trump, who is going to supersede that with a national law.” And they think, Democrats think that kind of fear will get people out to the polls.
MELANIE ZANONA: And Trump also is taking credit for overturning Roe v. Wade. So, he's had to try to have it both ways. It's interesting though, because privately he has said, according to our colleagues, that he does not see abortion as a political winner. So, it's interesting to hear him now laying the groundwork for taking a stance, but you're so right Dana, no matter what he does, Democrats are going to try to seize on this issue and try to link all Republicans to a national federal abortion ban, which they believe is not going to play well for Republicans.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: You know, and part of it is just the way he talks about abortion, right? I mean that it's this big deal when, you know, you get an abortion at 13 weeks, well maybe it's 14 weeks, I mean this is people's lives, right? These are women. It's women's bodies. And they feel some kind of way about these politicians who are trying to enter into these very private, private decisions about whether or not they want to start a family or have a bigger family and so I think it's his language, it's very cavalier. It's very callous. And no matter what he is still the architect of this mess of abortion policy that we have around the country at this point.
