It’s not shocking that Democrats only focused on this part of Bernie Moreno’s answer regarding abortion during a candidate forum this week. Moreno, the Trump-backed candidate to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, was joined by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Ohio State Sen. Matt Dolan. Moreno spoke about making life easier for those trying to raise families in America, which led to these remarks about strollers. The Brown campaign used it to produce this ad:
Bernie Moreno thinks women need help with their baby strollers, not access to abortion. pic.twitter.com/bdErihjyQ5
— Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) February 22, 2024
The Brown hit included The New Republic’s take on Moreno’s remarks:
Moreno said his daughter had recently flown home after visiting him. “Mom carrying what looks like an F1 team-worth of equipment,” Moreno said. “People helped her on that plane. Helped put the stroller away, helped her with her seat.”
“Those are the kinds of things that we can do,” he said. “Let’s be a pro-mom, pro-family policy.”
So apparently, Moreno has just volunteered to personally help every parent lift heavy strollers and navigate logistically complicated situations.
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Moreno may also find that his opposition to abortion is pretty unpopular with Ohio voters. In November, people overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. The result was a massive blow to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who had championed the anti-abortion side of the referendum and who is running against Moreno for the Republican Senate nomination.
Emotions run high on abortion, so it doesn’t surprise me that Democrats, who love this issue, didn’t hear the last snippet of Moreno’s answer, which is that he’s for a 15-week ban as a ceiling, with common sense restrictions including exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. That’s the factual position lost in the liberal rancor, probably because it’s not as unpopular as people think. For all the Left’s adoration for European socialism, most nations over there ban abortions after 15 weeks. Late-term abortion isn’t even a debate—it’s outlawed.
There are two reasons why this issue will pop up in the Buckeye State. The first and most apparent is that this is all Democrats have to run on this cycle, besides cockamamie conspiracy theories about how the Russians are using House Republicans to interfere in the 2024 elections. If it’s not that, it’s that the Kremlin has a blackmail file on Trump. These theories have long been debunked, with only those sniffing bath salts being the last vestiges of this audience. The problem is that it’s large enough to keep CNN and MSNBC alive.
The second point is related to the first, which is that Democrats are desperate to make Ohio a competitive state again, and they see abortion as the issue to put the state in play in 2024. The Left’s hopes are buoyed by the passage of the recent abortion referendum that amended the state constitution and made this act a constitutionally protected right. Fifty-six percent of Ohioans supported this measure, which meant a significant number of Republicans voted for it. Yet, like most issues, abortion is fraught with nuance, as are the results of past failed pro-life initiatives--all of which have gone down in political flames.
Until this referendum, Ohio was written off by Democrats, as it has become a reliably Republican state. Then again, so is Kansas—and Jayhawkers rejected a right-to-life amendment to their state constitution in 2022. It wasn’t close: 59 percent voted ‘no’ on the measure. Behind the hysterics, there might be tea leaves for a consensus. Kansas already doesn’t provide funding for abortion at the state and federal level; it has parental consent laws, and there’s a 20-week ban in place. If I had to guess, Kansas voters rejected the amendment, not because they’ve adopted a pro-abortion position post-Dobbs, but because they felt they had enough laws on the subject. Liberals pointing to Kansas as some warning to the GOP might be right, but let’s not kid ourselves: the abortion regulations in place there would make NARAL puke.
Americans don’t support a total abortion ban, but they’re also not gung-ho about the extremist agenda that's evident on the other side of this issue, either. Democrats want to permit abortion up to the moment of birth. Back in 2013, the Washington Post found that 60 percent of women supported a 20-week ban. That appeared to be a popular position as well.
Both sides need to realize their agendas aren’t popular with voters. Republicans have a little wiggle room to maneuver with voters. Democrats do not after generations of their supporters have become more radical and rabid on the subject, thanks to the pretense that the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, specifically Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, would live forever.
Abortion on demand and taxpayer-funded is just as unpopular as those pushing for its total prohibition. There must be a meeting in the middle, which Moreno seems to be offering, but all the Left heard was ‘baby strollers!’
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