Trump and the Republicans stand out from the law on abortion in Alabama

President Trump has joined the group of Republicans who have moved away from the new laws banning the vast majority of abortions, though he has pointed out what he has called a "strongly pro-life" stance that is not the same. he has always adopted at the White House.

Without specifically referring to an Alabama law passed last week that makes abortion a crime, unless a pregnancy seriously endangers a woman's health, Trump recalled her position that abortion should be legal after rape or incest.

In a series of tweets Saturday just before midnight, the president said he shared the same view as "Ronald Reagan."

Aligning with the memory of the GOP's popular figure, Trump ignored that Reagan had, as governor of California, signed a liberal abortion law. And as President, Reagan appointed to the US Supreme Court the first female judge, Sandra Day O'Connor, who voted in favor of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion at the national level, in subsequent challenges to the decision.

By investing in the debate on a new set of strict anti-abortion laws in Alabama and several other states, the presidential tweets have exacerbated the divisions that are emerging with the Republican party over the distance that should go to opponents of abortion.

The sudden series of state laws – and Trump's reaction over the weekend – have reinforced the importance of the issue of reproductive rights in the 2020 presidential campaigns.

On Sunday, several of the two Democrats who ran for party nomination reprimanded the GOP for inserting the government into a decision that they believe should be free for women – and that the government is not going to get it. public opinion supports.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), a Democratic presidential candidate, said the Alabama restrictions, promulgated Wednesday by governor Kay Ivey (right), are "dangerous."

"And when I talk to people, whether they are pro-choice or that they are personally opposed to abortion, a lot of them." . . do not think we should go in that direction, "said Klobuchar.

Steve Bullock (D), Governor of Montana, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Also stated that a woman should be free to decide whether she wanted to have an abortion – in consultation, if she wishes, with her doctor and people close to her. "What people do, unfortunately, creates a political problem from a medical problem," Sanders told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Presidential Candidate, said: "I hope American women are paying attention because President Trump has launched a war against American women. And if it's a fight he wants to have, it's a fight he's going to have, and he's going to lose. "

The latest poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation on the subject in late April revealed that two-thirds of the population wants Roe v. Wadethe 1973 decision to legalize abortion remains in place. A little more than half of the Republicans disagree.

In his late-night tweets, Trump also presented his position on abortion in the context of his efforts to win a second term. "We have to stay united and win for life in 2020," the president wrote. "If we are stupid and do not remain united as one, all our hard earned gains for life can and will disappear quickly."

He alluded to the two justices he appointed to the Supreme Court, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh, writing that they and "the federal judges (many more to come ) "are part of a" new positive attitude towards the right ". live."

Trump also evoked the so-called Mexico City policy, a rule that he re-established the week of his taking office in 2017, which blocks American aid to foreign organizations that use money from other sources to discuss or practice abortions. The rule was born in 1984. Since then, it has been reversed every time a Democrat entered the White House and reinstated by every Republican President.

Since his campaign, Trump has championed the causes of Christian conservatives, including their opposition to abortion, even though he has not always supported that belief. Two decades ago, he told an interviewer that he was "very pro-choice," saying, "I hate the concept of abortion. . . but you still have, I believe in the choice.

Among the actions of his administration, federal health officials in February rewrote the rules of the federal Title X family planning program to prevent organizations from receiving grants if they offered an abortion or if they recommended patients for a fee. abortion. In the wake of several measures that the administration has taken in the course of an appeal to social conservatives, the rule has been temporarily blocked by federal judges while legal proceedings against change are taking place. before the courts.

In addition to the new Alabama law, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have recently passed laws that, once enacted, will ban abortions after doctors have detected the fetal heart rate. – before many women realize that they are pregnant. On Friday, Missouri approved a law banning abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy. As in the case of Alabama, there are no exceptions in the bill for rape or incest. It should be signed by Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R).

Trump tweeted his point of view two days after the two leading congressional Republicans also moved away from Alabama law, even though they opposed abortion. The minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Said the new law "goes further than I think" while a spokesman for the Senate's majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Stated that he has long supported exceptions in cases of rape, incest or where a woman's life is endangered by a pregnancy.

Sunday, the Republican Sense. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) Echoed this view.

Felicia Sonmez and Paul Kane contributed to this report.

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