Republicans know their views on reproductive rights and cat ladies are unpopular, but they keep taking the bait

Despite much of the press carrying Donald Trump’s water by accepting his feeble attempts to pretend to be “moderate” on abortion, he showed his true colors again last week.

In an interview with CBS News, the GOP candidate insisted he had “no regrets” about ending abortion rights by appointing three justices hand-picked by the Federalist Society to overturn Roe v. Wade. Vice President Kamala Harris immediately pounced. Trump declared this “without even a moment’s hesitation,” Harris told the crowd Tuesday night at her raucous Milwaukee rally, which was piped into the equally exuberant Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago. Harris continued the theme in her nomination acceptance speech Thursday night in Chicago.

"And get this. Get this. He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions," Harris said of her GOP opponents. "Simply put, they are out of their minds."

It's not news that the Harris campaign is going hard on the reproductive rights issue this election, forefronting both the ongoing health crisis caused by abortion bans and warning the public the Republicans are just getting started. It's also not a mystery why — the issue is still at the forefront of voter minds, especially of those Democratic base voters Harris needs to energize. Even during the state roll call, delegation leaders spoke repeatedly about the need to protect women's rights. Texas brought forward Kate Cox, who was denied care for a failing pregnancy, to announce joyfully that she is expecting again. In Salon's conversations with delegates at the DNC, abortion and other reproductive rights were the issues people brought up more than any other. Multiple people cited the hostility Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has expressed publicly over a dozen times towards childless women, who he's deemed "miserable cat ladies" and "sociopaths."

But it's also true that, as with the accusation that MAGA leaders are "weird," highlighting Republican extremism on reproductive rights works as excellent bait. Republicans keep trying to deny the accusation, whining and insisting that it's the Democrats who are "radical." But in the process, Republicans act so weird that it just underscores how obsessed they are with controlling women's bodies.

To highlight their efforts to extend reproductive health services even as Republicans criminalize such care, Planned Parenthood parked a mobile clinic outside the United Center in Chicago during the convention. It's part of a larger effort to relieve abortion access networks helping patients traveling from states where it's banned. The clinic provided eight abortions and nine vasectomies over the two days it was parked there. Unsurprisingly, Republicans reacted with levels of hysteria that evoked 17th-century Puritan witch-hunters.

"25 babies lost their lives so far this week thanks the DNC's sponsoring of a Planned Parenthood abortion van," lied Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA on Twitter. He accused Democrats of having a "depopulation agenda" that is "Sick. Cruel. Evil."

In reality, zero babies were killed, the DNC did not "sponsor" the clinic, and — as the many speeches exalting how reproductive health care helps people build happy families shows — Democrats love children. They just want babies born to parents who are prepared to care for them. But perhaps the biggest lie is the one implied: Patients were tricked by Democrats into abortion. In reality, of course, women make the decision on their own and then reach out to clinics. Kirk also ignored the nine vasectomies, as his "women are idiots" argument falls apart in the face of proof that men also make reproductive health care decisions.

Kirk's lies are just a hint of how much Republicans were melting down during the DNC over women asserting their rights. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted the lie that Harris "will make abortion up to the day of birth the law." (Medical experts say this is not a real procedure.) Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, denied that Republicans are out to restrict contraception or that abortion bans have hurt patients experiencing miscarriages. Both are true and well-documented. Women who have been denied emergency treatment of miscarriages told their stories from the DNC stage, which means that Lee was falsely accusing these innocent women of lying. Trump ally Laura Loomer tweeted that "Democrats are doing human sacrifice." All just proving, over and over, that Republican leaders are exactly the weird, obsessed liars that Harris and Walz say they are.

Trump's meltdown is perhaps the weirdest. He's been frantically posting, in his incoherent way, on Truth Social. During his extended tantrum, he wrote, falsely, "Everybody, Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, and Conservatives, wanted Roe v. Wade TERMINATED." He also wrote, "I TRUST WOMEN, ALSO, AND I WILL KEEP WOMEN SAFE!" (As a reminder, Trump was found liable in court for sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll. Two separate juries found he was lying when he denied his violent crime against a woman.)

When the fish are eager to bite, it's wise to keep re-baiting the hook. At the DNC, Democratic politicians spoke with Salon about efforts to protect contraception — and to create a record of Republicans voting against birth control access.

"We will not stand idly by as our fundamental rights are threatened," Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., explained to Salon that she continues to push the Right to Contraception Act. It's necessary because, as she pointed out, Justice Clarence Thomas openly invited far-right Christian groups to challenge legal birth control in court, hinting that the GOP-dominated Supreme Court is open to destroying that basic right as well. By bringing up this bill, Baldwin proved that a misogynist fringe controls Republicans. Given the chance to affirm that Americans have a right "to obtain contraceptives and to engage in contraception," all but two Republicans voted against it.

During the DNC, Democratic state senator Ghazala Hashimi recounted her battle to enshrine the basic right to prevent pregnancy Virginia. She introduced a state-level version of the Right to Contraception Act, only to see Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin — who often pretends to be a moderate — veto it in May.

"It really is very misogynistic," Hashimi told Salon. "They have a clear perception of women as second-class citizens" she added, saying the MAGA right is "taking us in a very extreme and very dangerous direction." Hashimi said she's spoken in private with Republican members of the state legislature who "want to support this bill," but "they are terrified at the prospect of being primaried from the right."

They should be worried. As much as Sen. Mike Lee may deny Republicans are coming after birth control, the pattern is clear. Democrats offer Republicans one chance after another to vote for birth control rights, and every time, Republicans vote against it. Increasingly, major MAGA leaders are admitting out loud that they are coming for birth control. Kirk, lying as usual, claimed the birth control pill "screws up female brains." Peter Thiel, the far-right billionaire who bankrolled Vance's political career, has been heavily funding propaganda networks to spread disinformation about contraception. Elon Musk has also been spreading lies meant to discourage women from using birth control — or at least justify the anger that his incel-tinged audience has towards women. Vance's comments about "cat ladies" must be understood through this anti-contraception lens. One in 4 women will have an abortion at some point in life, but contraception use is near-universal. Over 99% of sexually experienced women have used birth control.

This is why Republicans want to keep quiet about their war on birth control access. They're already getting hammered politically over the abortion bans, which are opposed by 85% of Americans. Contraception is even more popular, with only 6% of Americans saying it's morally wrong. Yet, as all these examples show, many of the most famous faces of MAGA can't help themselves. When provoked, they say what they think, which is that no method women use to control their childbearing is acceptable. It's smart that Harris is baiting them. She'll keep setting her trap until November.