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[Montague]

For a decade they were nibbling around the edges, but they've started really pushing the abortion restrictions at the state level in the past year.  It's important to remember that the typical republican who recently was elected to office for the first time is far more conservative then you would expect by comparing them to republican incumbents from similar districts or offices.  So even though the recent freshman congressman are on average from more competitive districts, on average they are to the right of the republican incumbents they joined.  The GOP took a really hard turn to the right over the past three years.

I haven't heard too much of this but I believe that it's probably happening, I know one state law passed recently that mandated that women seeking abortions have to look at the ultrasonic scans of the fetus before they can consent to the operation. I think it's legally baseless to implement a law like that because there is no real justification for it, I imagine it'll be overturned or repealed at some point.

[Sirus]

For a decade they were nibbling around the edges, but they've started really pushing the abortion restrictions at the state level in the past year.  It's important to remember that the typical republican who recently was elected to office for the first time is far more conservative then you would expect by comparing them to republican incumbents from similar districts or offices.  So even though the recent freshman congressman are on average from more competitive districts, on average they are to the right of the republican incumbents they joined.  The GOP took a really hard turn to the right over the past three years.

I haven't heard too much of this but I believe that it's probably happening, I know one state law passed recently that mandated that women seeking abortions have to look at the ultrasonic scans of the fetus before they can consent to the operation. I think it's legally baseless to implement a law like that because there is no real justification for it, I imagine it'll be overturned or repealed at some point.

Considering that the average abortion takes place when the "fetus" is little more than a blob, I can't see how effective this law will be. You're right, it will probably be overturned or simply unenforced before long.

[Aqizzar]

So even though the recent freshman congressman are on average from more competitive districts, on average they are to the right of the republican incumbents they joined.  The GOP took a really hard turn to the right over the past three years.

I'm not sure it's so much that the Republican party as a whole, especially the "institutional" level, took a hard turn to the right as that it's found itself between two pressures it never expected to face.  One is the 2010 crop of newbies, who got elected campaigning on old conservative meathooks like absolutism on abortion and such, and the Republican establishment never got around to explaining to them that it's supposed to be an act.  That they're supposed to campaign on abortion and gays and prayer in schools and crap to get elected, then leave all of those issues as legislatively ambiguous as possible so they can still use them in the next election.

Instead, they wound up with a crop of zealots who've been drinking the koolaid for so long, they don't know how to leave things be.  Partially because, in the year 2010 of Citizen's United and Obamacare, the conservative think tanks and advocates who always funded the Republican party, your ALECs and Family Research Councils and so forth, suddenly had unlimited money to throw at candidates, and a bumpercrop of true-believer nutcases to pick from.  Many of those groups really do believe the stuff they push, and have been waiting with the patience of saints for the party they've stood behind for thirty years to finally do what they've been paying them to.  At last, an election came along where they didn't need to deal with the Republican party structure at all, and got the loyal soldiers they wanted, and told them they were invincible.

And now, since the Republican presidential candidates believe they have to hitch a ride on this train to win, they're right there with them.  That's how you get candidates like Rick Santorum sounding "reasonable", because the 2010 alumni have made it common knowledge in Republican circles that abortion is so old hat it's time to discuss the moral legality of contraception.  That's also why you don't see the other Republican posterboys like Chris Christie running this time either, because they know that train is going to derail sooner or later.

[Montague]

Considering that the average abortion takes place when the "fetus" is little more than a blob, I can't see how effective this law will be. You're right, it will probably be overturned or simply unenforced before long.

I looked it up out of curiosity (It was Texas, big surprise there) and the Circuit Court upheld the state's right to enforce the law because it 'falls within the state's power to require informed consent of the patient'. True enough, an blob on the sonograph probably isn't going to be exactly heart-wrenching enough to dissuade anybody serious about getting an abortion. Still, the ideological intent behind the law is fucking dodgy- I'm surprised the law was upheld.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577152992567818170.html

[palsch]

Weird, I always thought that the Republicans never try to ban abortion because it can be seen as a "get another term free" card.

1: Promise to ban abortion
2: Get elected
3: Aside from the occasional sound-bite, make no attempt to ban abortion during your term
4: When election time rolls around, blame the evil liberals for not being able to ban abortion
5: Get re-elected

Repeat as needed. Of course, this won't work everywhere, but I'm pretty sure that stunts like this are how people like Bachman stay in office.

This is pretty much the main thrust of Republican 'pro-life' politics. The problem is it only works when there are true believers to play to. And those true believers are the ones making the big pushes. Some of them made it into the state house, others are running the Tea Party groups that helped win the elections. Suddenly you can't just play lip service, even if that is the strategically smart thing to do.

Realistically abortion politics comes down to overturning Roe v. Wade (or rather it's successor cases, like Planned Parenthood v. Casey). That means having a highly conservative Supreme Court (where the majority reject an inherent right to privacy granted in the Constitution) hearing a fairly reasonable case about some anti-abortion law. The danger is any case that reaches the SCOTUS and is decided strongly is likely to set the playing field for decades. That is far too big a risk to take for either side. Predicting how the Court will jump is all too often a mug's game.

[RedKing]

Similar law re: abortion and ultrasound popped up in North Carolina, though IIRC the Governor vetoed it. But then also IIRC, the state legislature (which was overrun by Republicans in 2010) overrode the veto.

[ECrownofFire]

MEANWHILE, IN SANTORUM LAND

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yoinked from Reddit

Will it ever stop?

[Sirus]

Assuming Goldwater is dead (he certainly looks old enough in that pic), he must have been rolling in his grave the past decade or two.

[Deadmeat1471]

Assuming Goldwater is dead (he certainly looks old enough in that pic), he must have been rolling in his grave the past decade or two.

So is Eisenhower, Adam Smith and the founding fathers in general.

[Sirus]

Well, obviously. Goldwater was the only one on my mind at the time.

[ECrownofFire]

Assuming Goldwater is dead (he certainly looks old enough in that pic), he must have been rolling in his grave the past decade or two.

So is Eisenhower, Adam Smith and the founding fathers in general.

Relevant.

[Sirus]

Assuming Goldwater is dead (he certainly looks old enough in that pic), he must have been rolling in his grave the past decade or two.

So is Eisenhower, Adam Smith and the founding fathers in general.

Relevant.

Never seen the comic, but I have heard the joke somewhere else.

[palsch]

Relevant.

This joke seems somewhat familiar

[Karlito]

Relevant.

This joke seems somewhat familiar

Dilbert did it first.

[Deadmeat1471]

Assuming Goldwater is dead (he certainly looks old enough in that pic), he must have been rolling in his grave the past decade or two.

So is Eisenhower, Adam Smith and the founding fathers in general.

Relevant.

Lol'd hard