Idaho GOP gives a boost to national Democrats
The Idaho Republican Party is providing material for Democrats to use nationally raising money and scaring voters away from voting for GOP candidates. Ruth Brown writes in Idaho Reports:
The Idaho Republican Party has approved changes to its platform that criminalize all abortions without exemptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother, as well as green-lighting restrictions to voting in future GOP primary elections.
On the third day of the Idaho GOP Convention, delegates debated multiple proposed resolutions and platform changes, most of which passed.
Key changes to the platform included calling all abortion murder, criminalizing abortion and excluding exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.
The platform does not include an exemption allowing abortion if the life of the mother is in lethal danger.
Idaho state capitol.
A "no exceptions" rule is also unlikely to become law in Idaho, whose abortion ban currently makes exceptions for rape and incest.
So what is the state GOP there doing, cutting a de facto campaign commercial for Democrats across the country by making "no exceptions" its official stance?
This will enable Democrats to paint the GOP was wild-eyed extremists willing to sacrifice mothers' lives over their abortion fanaticism.
To be fair, as Richard Baehr pointed out in an email:
What is happening now is that both blue and red states are enacting laws that go well beyond any sense of seeking middle ground. Blue states will allow abortions for 3 trimesters, some red states will ban abortions totally and limit abortion travel.
But this platform has almost no chance of becoming law and serves only to help Democrats.
Photo credit: JSquish CC BY-SA 3.0 license.