There are currently 221 House Republicans. Of the 221, a grand total of zero describe themselves as supporters of abortion rights.
With this in mind, as the public sees reports about new House Speaker Mike Johnson being a fierce opponent of reproductive freedoms, the news might not seem especially striking. He’s a Republican congressman. Of course he wants to impose restrictions on abortion rights.
But Johnson is not just a run-of-the-mill opponent. The Louisianan fought to shut down abortion clinics, referred to abortion as a “holocaust,” suggested abortion could be blamed for school shootings, and at one point argued during a congressional hearing that if women couldn’t terminate unwanted pregnancies, there’d be more “able-bodied workers” — which in turn would mean Republicans would feel less of a need to pursue cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
It was against this backdrop that the new GOP leader sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week and fielded a question about the demise of Roe v. Wade. When the host asked whether he supports letting states decide on reproductive rights, Johnson replied:
“We argued my entire career for 25 years that the states should have the right to do this. There’s no national consensus among the people on what to do with that issue on a federal level for certain.”
A casual viewer might have seen this and come away with the impression that the new House speaker is an opponent of a national abortion ban, to be imposed on states at the federal level.
But that’s not his position at all. On the contrary, Johnson has pushed for federal abortion bans.
I’m not just referring to an obscure newspaper column the Republican wrote decades ago; it was just two years ago when the future House speaker co-sponsored legislation that would have created a national policy banning abortion after 20 weeks.
What’s more, it was exactly one year ago this week when a GOP member unveiled a bill that would’ve created a federal abortion ban after 15 — and Johnson co-sponsored that proposal, too. To be sure, there’s no reason to assume the new House speaker will be rushing similar measures to the floor anytime soon. For one thing, Congress’ to-do list is already long. For another, Johnson very likely knows that such a bill stands no chance of success in the Democratic-led Senate. What’s more, there are plenty of House Republicans from competitive districts that would eagerly avoid such a contentious vote. But these legislative realities don’t change the fact that when Johnson presented himself to the public last week as someone who’s spent his career supporting a state-by-state approach to abortion rights, his rhetoric didn’t exactly paint an accurate picture. When it comes to reproductive freedoms, watch what the House speaker does, not what he says.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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