Despite the looming shadow of the absent frontrunner, last week’s Republican presidential primary debate did get into enough non-Donald Trump substance to establish that even the putatively mainstream part of the GOP field is still far out of line with mainstream America on major issues. Especially one that potentially affects half the population in the most intimate ways imaginable.
On abortion, the grotesque, deeply misogynistic lie that legions of pregnant women are sitting around waiting until just before birth so they can maliciously abort their babies got wide airing with zero pushback from the candidates on the Milwaukee stage. (Or from the Fox News moderators, for that matter.)
The related claim that President Joe Biden and other mainstream Democrats favor policies allowing abortion for any reason up until “the moment of birth” was also tossed around as if it was established fact instead of political slander.
In fact, Biden and mainstream Democrats’ support for abortion rights generally echoes what was enshrined in the now-defunct Roe v. Wade: protection of that right up until fetal viability, which by definition is not late-term abortion.
“Roe v. Wade got it right,” Biden said earlier this year, going on to specify his support for restrictions in the final trimester. Polls show Americans agree. Gallup found in May that support for unfettered abortion rights in the first trimester (which is when the vast majority of abortions happen) was a record-high 69%.