Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons, a novel and a memoir. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.
- Texas abortion law spurs copycat laws on guns, critical race theory ... ›
- Texas Passes Bill That Would Create Anti-Abortion Vigilantes ›
- 'Insidious,' 'draconian,' 'cruel': New Texas abortion law empowers ... ›
- How Texans Won the Right to Be Anti-Abortion Vigilantes - The ... ›
- Supreme Court lets stand Texas 6-week abortion ban and 'vigilante ... ›
- Vigilante Injustice — Deputizing and Weaponizing the Public to Stop ... ›
- Texas abortion vigilantes: how the ban empowers anti-choice ... ›
Advertising
Start your day with National Memo Newsletter
Know first.
The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning
Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears
Last Friday, the United States Supreme Court overturned its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed Americans' constitutional right to have abortions. On Tuesday night, the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia hosted a Zoom event to celebrate the court's decision.
At the event, Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears rejected abortion rights entirely and claimed that after conception, "The baby isn't even [the mother's] body, she's got her own body. The blood running through the veins of the baby don't belong to her, it's not her blood."
This claim is false. Until birth, a fetus' blood is not oxygenated and receives everything necessary for survival from the mother's blood. The fetus is sustained by nutrients and oxygen passed through the placenta, which the mother grows. While in the womb, the fetus' liver and lungs are not fully formed, and the mother's body performs those life-sustaining functions.
Sears also referenced a widely debunked conspiracy theory, saying that "abortuaries sell baby parts" — a relatively common talking point in the anti-abortion movement, which originates in claims from 2015 that Planned Parenthood sells and profits off of the sale of post-abortion fetal tissue. Even Republican-led investigations found no substance to the claim, but the idea persists. A number of Planned Parenthood clinics do donate fetal tissue to medical research institutions, but never for a profit.
"Let's come back to, we're talking about two lives, not just one, because the mother is not having a lizard, she's having a human being who's half part of her. And the baby has its own body and the blood that is running through the baby isn't even her blood, so there's two separate bodies," Sears said.
The Family Foundation of Virginia is a Christian nonprofit that opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Other speakers at the virtual event included Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas, state Sen. Steve Newman, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who called the Court's decision an "amen moment" and reiterated his stance as a "pro-life governor" who believes that "life begins at inception."
A Youngkin spokesman clarified to the Washington Post that the governor meant to say "conception."
At present, Virginia allows abortion until the end of the second trimester, or 26 weeks, and in the third trimester only if three physicians certify that the mother’s health is at serious risk.
Youngkin, who, as previously reported by The American Independent Foundation, was caught on a hidden camera during his campaign saying that he had to hide his anti-abortion views for fear of alienating moderate voters, announced his administration would push for a 15-week abortion ban the day the Court overturned Roe.
While Republicans control the House of Delegates, Democrats have a one-vote majority in the state Senate. However, one member of the Democratic caucus — Sen. Joe Morrissey — could break with his party to pass an abortion ban. Morrissey, a Roman Catholic, has said he would consider a ban on the procedure starting around the 20th week of pregnancy. At that point, Sears, as the lieutenant governor, would cast the tie-breaking vote.
The Jamaican-born Sears, the first Black woman to hold statewide office in the Commonwealth, previously scrubbed her positions from her campaign website, including her view that abortion rights are "wicked" and that "gun control laws DO NOT deter crime." After the May 28 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and three adults dead, Sears rejected the idea that guns were to blame, and argued that the root cause was that "we have emasculated our men."
Abortion rights are still broadly popular in Virginia. Polling conducted in the wake of the leaked draft decision overturning Roe found that 59% of residents did not support the Court's decision.
But Sears was quick to reject popular opinion on Tuesday night. "The fight has only just begun," she said. "I am on the side of right. This is the right thing ... and God is pleased, so it doesn't really matter."
Reprinted with permission from American Independent.
Dr. Mehmet Oz
During the 2000s, television doctor Mehmet Oz was a self-described “moderate Republican” who compared himself to President Teddy Roosevelt and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — and when the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010, he praised the universal health care systems in Switzerland and Germany. But that was before Oz, now 62, ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania in the 2022 midterms, making a hard-right turn and bragged about an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
Having narrowly defeated fellow Republican David McCormick in Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate primary, Oz is now up against the Democratic nominee, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, in the general election. And according to journalist Caleb Ecarma’s reporting in Vanity Fair on July 1, Oz fears that being too Trumpian will put him at a disadvantage against Fetterman — who had a 9% lead over him in a USA Today/Suffolk poll released in mid-June.
“In his closing pitch to Republicans voting in the Pennsylvania Senate primary last month,” Ecarma observes, “Mehmet Oz portrayed himself as pro-life, pro-police, pro-guns, and — most importantly — pro-Donald Trump. That message, along with a Trump endorsement, was enough for Oz to best his opponents in a contentious GOP primary. But since securing the party’s nomination in a recount three weeks ago, the TV doctor turned Senate hopeful has taken steps to distance himself from Trump in a general election rebrand that he hopes will win over independents and even ‘conservative Democrats.’”
Ecarma cites a post-primary appearance on Fox Business as an example of that “rebrand.” The television doctor told host Maria Bartiromo, “If you’re culturally a Democrat, God bless you, I’m with you. Come across, join us — we’ve got a big message and a big tent.”
But that is much different messaging from the primary, when Oz ran ads attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci — who he praised in the past — in order to woo the MAGA crowd. Now, hoping to defeat Fetterman in the general election, Oz is trying to avoid sound too MAGA and has removed “endorsed by Trump” from his campaign website.
“Of course, this shift is far from surprising,” Ecarma explains. “Given Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground state, Oz will have to make inroads with voters outside of Trump’s base to defeat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic Party’s nominee in the race, and fill outgoing Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat.”
In a general election pivot, Mehmet Oz is quietly shifting his campaign branding away from embrace of Donald Trump.
— Axios (@axios) June 22, 2022
https://t.co/VbI8bSzwiQ
According to Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist Mike Mikus, Oz risks offending Trump loyalists by playing to the center.
Mikus told Vanity Fair, “I understand why Oz is doing it, but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. He’s known as Trump’s candidate even among casual voters. But he’s playing with fire. To say that Donald Trump demands absolute loyalty is an understatement, and this actually has the potential to turn Trump against him.”
Trump loyalist Sebastian Gorka is already slamming Oz for distancing himself from Trump after winning the primary. One June 22, Gorka tweeted:
Oz just pulled a slimy move after Trump helped him.https://t.co/MbQg6vFWVR
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) June 23, 2022
That same day, far-right pundit Jack Posobiec pointed out that Oz had removed “endorsed by Trump” from his campaign website:
Who could have predicted this pic.twitter.com/1vQMhYdYUP
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 22, 2022
Mark Nevins, a Democratic strategist based in Philadelphia, argues that Pennsylvania residents view Oz as an outsider. The television doctor bought a house in the Philly suburbs, but not until 2022.
Nevins told Vanity Fair, “The Trump branding issue is not necessarily Oz’s biggest problem. He has his own baggage, namely that I think most people here think he lives in New Jersey. I’m not sure people really see him as a Pennsylvania resident. If not for his celebrity status, I don’t think anybody would take him seriously.”
https://t.co/yLStJOQNY7 pic.twitter.com/50qoRi1YVM
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) June 22, 2022
Oz has done a lot of flip-flopping over the years. For example, he went from calling for universal health care in the past to saying that he wants to overturn Obamacare. And Oz’s flip-flopping isn’t lost on Jack Doyle, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Doyle told Vanity Fair, “Mehmet Oz is a scam artist and a fraud who isn’t from Pennsylvania and doesn’t care about our values, but will say whatever he needs to in order to get ahead. At this point, he’s been on every side of every issue there is, and Pennsylvania voters know they can’t trust him.”
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
