A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered
during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA
movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we
fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.

This week’s Trumptastrophe brings into focus Trump’s desperate attempts to
have it both ways when it comes to his opposition to abortion. During his
first term he fought ruthlessly to restrict reproductive freedom and until
very recently, advocated for a nationwide ban on abortion. Now, as he and
other Republicans realize it’s a losing issue for them – and one that
motivates voters to cast their ballots against them – they have backed
away (at least publicly) from supporting a nationwide ban. But Trump and
his fellow Republicans have proven time and again that they cannot be
trusted. We will remember their anti-abortion extremism, no matter how
much they try to hide from it:

On April 13, 2017, Trump [ [link removed] ]signed legislation meant to defund Planned
Parenthood, a key goal of the religious ultraconservative voters that
helped put Trump into the White House. The law overturned an Obama
administration rule that state and local governments could not withhold
federal health care funds from qualified providers just because those
organizations also provide abortions.

As The New York Times [ [link removed] ]noted at the time, “Mr. Trump has made
restricting abortions a priority during his early days in office. Days
after being sworn in, he signed an executive order reinstating the
so-called Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, which
blocks United States funding from going to any nongovernmental
organization around the world that provides abortion counseling, even if
the money is not used for abortion-related services.”

Indeed, that was just one small part of the Trump administration’s
[ [link removed] ]intensely anti-choice record, which included his nomination of
anti-choice Supreme Court justices and federal judges, his [ [link removed] ]support for
a bill banning abortion nationally after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and his
essentially turning the Department of Health and Human Services into an
enforcement arm of the religious right.

It’s important to recall Trump’s relentless actions to [ [link removed] ]restrict access
to abortion and [ [link removed] ]birth control during his first term in office, because
right now he’s trying to muddy the waters.

Trump wants credit from the religious right for overturning Roe v. Wade,
because he needs their help to get back in power. But he also knows that
most Americans did not support Roe v. Wade being overturned, and most
voters oppose abortion bans, so he now says that he is against a national
abortion ban.

In a video posted on Trump’s social media platform April 8, Trump tried to
have it both ways. He bragged about nominating the Supreme Court justices
who cemented a right-wing majority on the court and doomed Roe v. Wade,
something he has repeatedly taken credit for. But he declared that it is
up to the “hearts, minds, and vote of the people of each state,” whom he
urged to “do the right thing.”

The day after Trump released his video trumpeting abortion as a states’
rights issue, the right-wing Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a Civil
War-era law criminalizing all abortions unless necessary to save a woman’s
life is in effect now that Roe v. Wade is gone. In other words, a day
after Trump promoted a states’ rights position on abortion to try to
distance himself from abortion bans, a state adopted an extreme ban that
could land doctors or providers of abortion medication in jail for five
years.

Some anti-abortion leaders—whose goal is absolutely to criminalize
abortion nationwide—criticized Trump’s newly announced opposition to a
federal ban. But most vowed to keep working to return him to power,
convinced that he would do their bidding when he no longer had to worry
about voters. “Pro-life voters have only one option in November,” declared
the right-wing CatholicVote. Students for Life’s Kristan Hawkins, who is
“100% for national pro-life law,” said on a social media thread that
“Trump made the right call—and this leaves room for better action to be
taken down the road.”

Trump’s track record gives them reason to be confident. So does Project
2025, the far-right plan to “take the reins of government” after a Trump
victory; [ [link removed] ]the Project 2025 agenda calls for the federal government to
protect fertilized eggs from the moment of conception and demands criminal
action against the distributors of abortion medication.

Anti-abortion activist Lila Rose [ [link removed] ]pointed out that Trump’s position is
counter to the current Republican Party platform, which states, “We
support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make
clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before
birth.” That is not a fringe position within the anti-abortion movement,
but it is wildly out of line with most Americans’ belief that abortion
should be legal in all or most circumstances.

Arizona MAGA Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake is now in the same boat
as Trump. When she was running for governor in 2022, she [ [link removed] ]forcefully
praised the Arizona ban that the state Supreme Court just affirmed. She
called it a “great law.” But now, Lake is attempting a 180-degree turn,
[ [link removed] ]saying she opposes the same law she praised in her last campaign.
She’s no doubt sweating the fact that [ [link removed] ]Arizona for Abortion Access
[ [link removed] ]said this month it has [ [link removed] ]gathered enough signatures to have
[ [link removed] ]voters decide this fall whether to protect the right to an abortion in
the state constitution as voters have done elsewhere.

Try as she might to hide or scurry away from it, Lake’s anti-abortion
extremism is absolutely clear, and she shouldn’t be able to hide that
reality from voters. The same is true for Trump.

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, [ [link removed] ]you can find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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