Antiabortion activists face headwinds with Clinton leading and Trump stumbling on women’s issues
By Sandhya Somashekhar and Katie Zezima October 21 at 8:08 PM
Antiabortion activists, already experiencing a difficult year, say their movement faces a pivotal moment as another Democrat who staunchly supports abortion rights appears likely to occupy the White House.
First came the death of Antonin Scalia, an ardent ally on the Supreme Court. Then came a stinging defeat before the justices over a sweeping Texas law regulating abortion providers. Now, activists are afraid that Hillary Clinton is headed to victory — and angry that Donald Trump has done his share, they say, to set back a movement that has strived to show sensitivity toward women.
For years, antiabortion activists have succeeded in advancing their agenda in part by not vilifying women. They have portrayed women as sometimes coerced into the procedure — in other words, they are victims as much as their unborn children are. Activists have targeted groups and doctors who perform abortions and have pushed restrictive laws in the name of women’s health.
Trump has not followed that playbook. Earlier this year, he suggested that women who have abortions should be punished, a position he later reversed. His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said in a recent interview with the New Yorker that the remark was “a great example of him just undoing decades of work where we worked really hard.”
And Wednesday, in a nationally televised debate, he criticized his opponent for wanting women to have access to a procedure in which, he said, doctors “rip the baby out of the womb .?.?. just prior to the birth” — a crude description of abortions that he claimed occur late in pregnancy.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/antiabortion-activists-face-headwinds-with-clinton-leading-and-trump-stumbling-on-womens-issues/2016/10/21/a17bc29c-96dc-11e6-9b7c-57290af48a49_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
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