[Baltimore Sun] Tom Zirpoli: Trump tries to have it both ways on abortion | COMMENTARY
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According to the Arizona Supreme Court — all Republican appointees — the laws of 1864, in a territory now known today as Arizona, are applicable to the people of the state of Arizona in 2024. This interesting ruling is indicative of how badly these Republican judges wanted to make abortion illegal in Arizona, even in cases of rape and incest.
In 1863, with the Civil War raging, President Abraham Lincoln signed a law creating a new territory that would become the state of Arizona. He appointed several men, including William Howell, to administer the new territory. Howell was asked to write a set of laws for the new territory and by 1864, the Howell Code was completed.
Included in the Howell Code was a section making poisoning illegal, including: “[E]very person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years: Provided, that no physician shall be affected by the last clause of this section, who in the discharge of his professional duties deems it necessary to produce the miscarriage of any woman to save her life.”
Other issues covered by the Howell Code included rules about the transfer of slaves across state lines, a section regulating duels and a provision that only “white male citizens” who lived in the new territory for at least six months could vote.
According to the Howell Code, used by the Arizona Supreme Court for legal and moral guidance on abortion today, men could have sex with children 10 years or older as long as the young girl gave her “consent.” I wonder if the court will honor these other codes from Howell.
The judges in America who are limiting the reproduction rights of women at the federal and state levels are Republican-appointed, including the three judges appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s judges gave states like Arizona the right to ban abortions, completely or otherwise. All of a sudden, however, some Republicans, including Trump, are concerned these judges are making unpopular rulings that threaten to send women who have abortions, as well as their doctors, to jail.
On this issue, there are two types of Republicans. You have the anti-abortion folks who always have been and always will be anti-abortion based upon their deep-seated beliefs, frequently born out of religious values. Say what you want about these folks, they have their values and while I disagree with their opinion, I respect their position. What I don’t respect is pushing their values on others.
Then you have people like Trump, a previous pro-choice Democrat who, to get elected in 2016, made a deal with evangelical leaders when he decided to run for president. The deal was that if evangelical voters helped him get elected, he would reward them by appointing anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court and throughout the entire federal judicial system.
For these anti-abortion folks, they were willing to ignore Trump’s significant moral flaws to end the federal right to abortion.
Trump did not disappoint. Once in the White House, he put three anti-abortion judges on the Supreme Court and appointed 226 judges for the federal court system during his four years in office.
As a result, national abortion rights were overturned by the Supreme Court, and in state courts where Republicans rule, abortion rights have been severely limited. Evangelicals got what they wanted, even if they had to sell their souls to Trump.
Unlike most evangelicals whose anti-abortion beliefs are value-based, Trump does not speak from a position of moral conviction. He does not speak from any deep-seated religious beliefs or personal values. He speaks for personal gain and power.
Thus, if he needed to be pro-life to get elected in 2016, he could pretend to be pro-life. If he needs to be more moderate on the abortion issue to get re-elected in 2024, he can play that role, too.
For Trump, everything is negotiable based on his needs at the time. Now that Trump has secured the Republican nomination, he needs to moderate his abortion position to appeal to the general American population, two-thirds of whom support legal abortion in most or all cases, including 59% Arizona voters.
Trump needs to get the American people to forget that he is directly responsible for the defeat of Roe v. Wade and, thus, the Arizona abortion ruling; all made possible by his appointees.
The day before the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, Trump said “The states will determine … and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”
The next day, however, Trump tried to distance himself from the ruling and the statement he made the day before. And he assured the people of Arizona and Florida, where a similar state ruling was made, that Republican state legislators would override the restricted and unpopular abortion rulings.
“So, Florida’s probably going to change, Arizona’s going to definitely change,” Trump said. “Everybody wants that to happen.”
Well, certainly not everyone. The Republican-controlled Arizona legislature has since blocked two attempts by Democrats and some moderate Republicans to pass a law effectively vacating the Arizona Supreme Court ruling. It seems its position on abortion is value-based, not politically guided like Trump’s.
Perhaps, on this one issue, evangelicals are tired of selling their souls and are not bowing to Trump’s immediate political needs to win back the White House. Perhaps, this time, Trump can’t have it both ways.
Tom Zirpoli is the Laurence J. Adams Distinguished Chair in Special Education Emeritus at McDaniel College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at [email protected].
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