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There are only two weeks remaining before Virginia’s legislative elections, and the stakes in the commonwealth have come into sharper focus. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the state House, while Democrats have a slim advantage in the state Senate. Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, hopes to flip the upper chamber and start advancing some of his most controversial ideas.
At the top of the list: Republicans plan to impose a new abortion ban.
Not surprisingly, Virginia Democrats have spent months focusing on the issue, telling Virginians about the inevitable consequences of unified GOP control over state government. But instead of focusing attention elsewhere, Republicans are effectively conceding the point and acknowledging their plans. In fact, as Politico reported, the party seems to think it can win on the issue.
The Virginia GOP is trying to flip the script on an issue that has dogged Republicans for a year and a half. So far, Republicans have been doing their best to not talk about it. But now Youngkin is going after Democrats as extremists who don’t support any restrictions. Republicans, the new campaign says, are the reasonable ones who back a ban after 15 weeks with exceptions for cases of rape, incest and life of the mother.
NBC News ran a related report, noting that the Republican governor’s political action committee has invested heavily in a 30-second commercial that accuses Democrats of engaging in a “disinformation” campaign.
“There is no ban,” the ad goes on to tell viewers.
Is that defense true? Not exactly.
Democrats are telling voters that Republicans want to impose a regressive and unpopular 15-week abortion ban, well to the right of the 20-week bans the party has pushed in years past. Republicans, meanwhile, are responding that Youngkin and his GOP allies simply intend to approve “a reasonable 15-week limit.”
In other words, Republicans are eager to parse the meaning of “ban.” Focus-group participants probably responded well to the word “limit,” so it’s the word GOP candidates and officeholders are clinging to.
But in terms of practical policymaking, we’re talking about a difference without a distinction. Republicans intend to create government-imposed restrictions on reproductive rights in the commonwealth by banning options that currently exist. GOP advertising is telling Virginians that the party’s proposed ban is “reasonable,” but that’s an adjective Republicans have chosen for themselves.
All of which is to say, Virginia is confronting a familiar dynamic in which partisans try to rebrand unpopular ideas. Republicans aren’t trying to privatize education through school voucher schemes; they’re merely advocating “school choice.” The party isn’t trying to privatize Social Security; they’re simply pushing “private personal accounts.”
And GOP control in the commonwealth wouldn’t lead to an abortion ban; Virginians would simply find their reproductive rights subject to new “limits.”