The GOP’s “Pro-Life” Lie

By Bill Maher

We all know Trump and Hannity, but not much about Michael Cohen’s other client, Elliott Broidy. He’s the RNC deputy finance chairman who had an affair with a Playboy Playmate and then paid her $1.6 million to keep quiet after she had an abortion. He says “she alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy,” but if you think abortion is murder, why pay $1.6 million for one?

This is a pattern now. “Pro-life” Congressman Scott DesJarlais got caught urging multiple women to get abortions, and he’s still around. “Pro-life” Congressman Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania resigned after getting caught pressuring his mistress to have an abortion (that’s the seat Conor Lamb won). Trump didn’t use a condom for a one-night stand with a porn star, or at any point with Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. I’d put the percentage chance that he’s never paid for an abortion at less than zero. Maureen Dowd once asked him if he’d ever been involved with anyone who had an abortion, and his answer was, “What’s your next question?”

Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, and he’s never been more popular with them than he is right now. Would they still give him a mulligan once they find out he’s paid for abortions?

I think they would. I think there’s no bigger hypocrisy in politics right now than Republican politicians and voters on abortion. They’re against abortion right up until the moment of conception. Dan Quayle and Herman Cain were both adamant pro-lifers who admitted being pro-choice.

Shouldn’t Democrats run on this, since polls suggest about one in six voters are single-issue abortion voters? If pro-life is just a meaningless label, why don’t they take it? Republicans aren’t really “pro-life,” they’re just anti-birth control. At least Democrats are pro-birth control, which is the best way to reduce abortions and unwanted pregnancies. Are there any Republican voters out there who are genuinely anti-abortion, and not just anti-birth control, whom this argument could appeal to?