Trump & DeSantis In A Heartbeat Brawl

WSJ asks “Who’s Extreme on Abortion?” as Dems insist on late-term policy, while GOP beats drum for “heartbeat” laws. But is Trump or DeSantis best able to make the case with Indies that Dems favor “no restrictions whatever”?

THAT is the $64K question the editors ask the two leading GOP presidential candidates. They observe: “In the months since the Supreme Court returned abortion to the democratic process, politics has broken out across America. That was as the Supreme Court expected. Most interesting is the clash over the issue between the two Floridians are the leading contenders to head the 2024 Republican Ticket – Former president Donald Trump & Gov. Ron DeSantis. Mr. Trump likes to tout himself as ‘the most pro-life president in American history,” recently attacked Mr. DeSantis for signing a heartbeat bill that bans abortion in Florida after 6 weeks (with exceptions for rape, incest, etc.). Mr. Trump claimed that ‘many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh,’ though he neither named those alleged pro-lifers nor spelled out his preferred alternative.” Gov. DeSantis, no wilting flower, shot back: “The legislature put it in, I signed the bill, I was proud to do it. He [Trump] won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”

Undeniably & as the WSJ concedes, Mr. Trump got a more conservative balance to the High Court & creamed Hillary Clinton in the 2020 debates on the subject by reminding voters “If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby & rip [it] out of the womb … just prior to birth …” But, the editors warn, by Trump now painting Mr. DeSantis as “too extreme” just for signing his state’s 6-week law, he may have already killed his own pro-life credentials since “pro-lifers may [no longer] be as keen to come out for him, especially with Roe v Wade now overturned.”

Davd Soul