Republicans are still scrambling on abortion. Just look at Rick Scott

Another day, another confused, wishy-washy, “pro-life” Republican muttering incoherently about abortion. Florida Sen. Rick Scott—who oversaw one of the largest Medicare frauds in U.S. history … but that’s not important right now—is trying to wriggle away from his past proclamations about abortion. 

Scott will say just about anything, as long as it’s a chickenshit lie. And now he’s recoiling from his sincerely held “pro-life” positions like Donald Trump from a process server posing as an age-appropriate blind date. Or is he? 

Knowing that the abortion issue is now a political minefield chock-full of unexploded ordnance, Republicans across the country are trying to hedge their bets and cover their butts. But, lately, Scott mostly just sounds like he’s got shrapnel in his head.

RELATED STORY: Montana becomes the latest abortion battleground state for 2024

As The Hill reported Monday, Scott has often said that he would support a six-week abortion ban. But then he told The Hill his new position.

“So if I was writing a bill, I’d think that 15 weeks with the limitations [for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother] is where the state’s at,” he said. 

Pretty clear, right? Fifteen weeks. That’s the sweet spot between “abortion is murder” and “abortion is murder…ing my chances of reelection.” Or, well … maybe not. Because as Talking Points Memo notes, he night have received “some feedback he didn’t like from the anti-abortion groups who have long supported his ‘pro-life’ governing.” Because when Spectrum News 13’s Holly Gregory asked Scott to clarify his stance, he was back to six weeks.

“I was governor for eight years. I signed every abortion, you know, pro-life bill,” he said. “You know, I signed every pro-life bill that came in front of me. And if I was the sitting governor and the six-week abortion ban came in front of me, I would sign it. I’ve always said I would sign it.”

Gee, you’d think the same people who screamed for years about all abortion being murder would have their talking points down by now, but no such luck. Instead, they’re asking us all to participate in a brand-new thought experiment called Schrödinger's zygote. A fetus is a full-fledged person if an evangelical man is observing it, but not if a moderate suburban woman voter is. Good luck with that, Republicans!

Seriously, though, after whining for 50 years about brutally oppressed embryos, how it is possible Republicans still don’t know what their homicide policy is? Donald Trump sure doesn’t know. All the Republicans suddenly scrambling to protect in vitro fertilization have no fucking clue, either.

And neither does Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake before and after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that men had every right to declare eminent domain over women’s uteruses.

Before:

Go back to 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Lake said she was “incredibly thrilled” that Arizona’s “great law that’s already on the books” could now be enforced.

“I believe it’s ARS 13-3603 that will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother. I think we’re going to be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow,” she said. When you can quote the statute number of an 1864 law, you’re most likely a zealot on the issue.

After:

In a five-and-a half minute video posted last week—with a soft focus lens and a soothing soundtrack—Lake reiterated her brand-new position that the “total ban on abortion that the Arizona Supreme Court just ruled on is out of line,” and insisted that women must have choice.

[...]

In the same video, Lake declared, “I agree with President Trump. We must have exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of a mother.” Exceptions to what, Ms. Lake? A total abortion ban? If you don’t have a ban, you don’t really need exceptions now, do you?

Ah, yes. Trump. The most “pro-life” president ever—except when he’s actually discussing abortion. On the one hand, he claims to be “pro-life.” On the other hand, he’s fine with whatever the states decide—unless that state is Arizona, which has already decided “The Handmaid’s Tale” is suitable for school libraries, so long as it’s removed from the satirical fiction section and re-shelved in the “how-to” stacks. In other words, when it comes to abortion, Trump is now simultaneously the most punitive and permissive presidential candidate in his party’s history. Luckily for him, he’s had a lot of practice talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Republican politicians who previously insisted that IVF was a big, frosty mug of murder are now diving headlong into those killing fields, insisting that a woman’s choice to have a child is more important than all those ensouled zygotes being eternally consigned to limbo or hell or wherever unbaptized freezer pops go these days. And in case they haven’t read their Bibles lately, hell is really, really bad—and Trump hasn’t even arrived yet.

Of course, the abortion issue—and Florida’s draconian six-week abortion ban—isn’t just bedeviling Scott. It’s also providing an opening for President Joe Biden in a state that, in recent election cycles, has been inexorably sliding into the swamp.

Here was Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld discussing Republicans’ muddled abortion message before Trump muddled it further with his craven states’ rights dodge:

Senate Democrats view Scott, who has never won a general election by more than 1.2 percentage points, as a uniquely vulnerable candidate, even in a red state like Florida. Now they can add the turbo booster of an abortion-rights ballot measure following a Monday ruling from the state Supreme Court allowing Floridians to vote on the issue in November. At the same time, Florida’s high court allowed a six-week ban on abortion to go into effect, overturning decades of legal precedent regarding privacy protections provided by the state’s constitution.

The successive rulings landed like a one-two electoral punch that could upend the state’s political landscape to Democrats’ benefit.

I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of Florida’s voters performing a long-postponed Scott-ectomy. Let’s see if we can’t make that happen. What do you say?

RELATED STORY: New poll shows when Republicans talk about abortion, they're losing

Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Campaign Action