Amid 40-year-high inflation, dwindling investment portfolios, and 20-year high mortgage rates, the Democratic Party appears most concerned with protecting the abortion rights of rape and incest victims. I live in Florida, and almost every day in recent weeks, I’ve gotten at least one flyer warning me that one Republican candidate or another wants to “imprison victims of rape.”
Last week, I got three different flyers about “extremist Audrey Henson,” a young Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, all concerning her alleged support for criminalizing abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. One featured an image of a book supposedly written by Ms. Henson with the title, “Why I am Pro-Life as a Millennial Woman.” It claimed that she “wrote the book on how to deny women’s rights.” Another featured an image of an outraged woman holding a remote control with the title “Who would imprison a victim of rape?” and claimed she was “so extreme [that] she supports criminalizing the victims of rape and incest.”
All three ads were paid for by the Florida Democratic Party and had a footnote referencing a 531-word column (not a book) authored by Henson that has no mention of rape or incest or imprisoning anyone. False or misleading advertising is obviously not new. But the Democratic Party’s almost single-minded obsession with the abortion rights of rape and incest victims at a time when every poll shows Americans are overwhelmingly concerned with the economy is puzzling.
At last week’s Florida gubernatorial debate, for example, the Democratic challenger Charlie Crist was asked about soaring housing costs. About ten seconds into his remarks, he pivoted to a rape-and-incest-related jab regarding Florida’s recent abortion legislation, which doesn’t allow abortions after 15 weeks, even in such cases. He went on to refer to the abortion rights of rape and incest victims three more times in the debate, and never in response to a question about abortion. By contrast, he uttered the word “inflation” just twice as part of a single thought he never completed.
I’ve received similar flyers regarding Senator Marco Rubio, who is facing Representative Val Demings in his re-election bid. In their debate, she said, “No, Senator, I don’t think it’s okay for a 10-year-old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist.” Never mind that Rubio co-sponsored Lindsey Graham’s recent federal bill to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks with exceptions for victims of rape and incest. Other Democrats have also played the rape and incest card in recent debates. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer falsely claimed in her recent debate against Republican Tudor Dixon that a 14-year-old child raped by her uncle was a “perfect example” of someone who shouldn’t be able to get an abortion.
The media has also highlighted the issue, amplifying a recent report from Buzzfeed about a middle school incest victim in Florida who was allegedly denied an abortion because it was after the state’s 15-week cutoff. The report, which was based on a tip from a Planned Parenthood executive, lacked detail, including the age of the victim, the circumstances, and even where she ultimately received the abortion beyond a vague claim it was “two or three states away.”
Florida asks women who receive abortions why they’re getting one and publishes the data. Of the 42,307 abortions performed so far in the state this year, six (.014 percent) were due to incest and 69 (.16 percent) were because of rape. Ninety-six or .22 percent were performed in response to a life-threatening health condition of the mother, and another 757 or 1.7 percent were for a non-life-threatening health condition of the mother.
Though the media focuses on abortion cases involving such instances as teenagers who were raped, the demographic profile of women who had abortions in 2019, according to the CDC, paints a different picture. Sixty percent of abortions were performed on women who already have children. Three times as many women in their 30s got abortions as teenagers, and 58 percent of abortions were performed on black and Hispanic women, though they represent only about a third of the US population.
Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in the country, and politicians need to compromise. But some are in no mood to do so. For example, a South Carolina Senate committee voted in September to remove rape and incest exceptions from a proposed abortion ban. And on the left, Democrats are often just as unyielding. New York Governor Kathy Hochul was asked in her recent debate if she supported any restrictions on abortion, and she dodged the question, as have other Democrats.
Public opinion surveys indicate that most Americans support abortion rights, but only in the first trimester, which is similar to the laws on the books in most European countries. Democrats have long engaged in class warfare by scapegoating the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Now they’re framing the abortion debate around 1 percent, or fewer, of cases. Republicans should compromise on abortion rights for victims of rape and incest, particularly in the first trimester. Perhaps then they can re-frame the abortion debate away from the 1 percent and back to the 99 percent where it belongs.
