Based on the results Tuesday night, the Dems seem to think the abortion issue will save them in 2024 and Old Joe is somehow in the clear  despite the awful job he is doing. That’s quite a stretch.

No doubt, abortion will be all Democrats can talk about, and who can blame them? They are a disaster everywhere else. In 2022, in my hometown metro mayor’s election, we had a liberal Democrat candidate. You might remember him; he was shot and wounded by one of his own staffers, a deranged BLM activist. With crime out of control and a crime-fighting Republican opponent, what did this guy talk about? Abortion, of course. Never mind that mayors have no role in this issue.

Anyway, this Democrat did win, but by one of the smallest margins in the last 50 years, in a blue county. Republicans still picked up city council seats and state house races across the metro, even with millions of dollars in media spending by the Democrats. As was also noted by many that year, while abortion was winning a statewide Kentucky referendum, one of the most pro-life senators, Rand Paul, racked up an enormous victory. 

Same thing happened this year with the Kentucky governor’s race. The Democrat incumbent, Beshear, had tens of millions of dollars to blast the airwaves with attacks, including deceptive abortion ads, against Daniel Cameron, for months on end.

I might add, the Democrats also ran lots of nasty racist attacks on the black candidate, Cameron. They just can’t help it.

However, Cameron, as a Mitch McConnell protégé, was surprisingly underfunded and did not put up much of a media fight.

But the rest of the Kentucky GOP ticket, pro-lifers all, won overwhelmingly. What is the lesson? Abortion is only important if you don’t have any money to fight back. It was much the same story elsewhere Tuesday.

In blue Viriginia, Glenn Youngkin’s plan to elect a GOP legislature through an abortion compromise law fell short. But just barely, running in districts drawn heavily against the GOP. While Virginia Democrats also raised much more money. In Ohio, again, abortion forces won because they had a lot more money. Just as the Wisconsin Supreme Court was flipped as the Democrat had millions more.

Presumably in 2024, the GOP will have the money to express its positions, and one hopes candidates for federal office will all be saying what Donald Trump has been emphasizing this year; there's no point in a federal abortion law, either way.

We Right to Lifers got what we wanted -- Roe v Wade is dead. The states will decide things from here on in. There is no national consensus on abortion, other than the fact that majorities of Americans consistently oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.

GOP federal candidates should point out Biden now opposes the Hyde Amendment to prevent federal money for abortions. In fact, he and Lloyd Austin are breaking the law to use DOD money on abortion expenses. 

The Democrats will, of course, counter with horror stories about rape and incest abortions, but never mention these are already very rare, maybe 1% of pregnancies. Not that they show any interest in prosecuting the perpetrators; last I checked, rape and incest are still crimes.

But why not turn this around on the abortionists? Wouldn’t it be better to promote the non-abortifacient, safe medicines we already have, like Plan B,  for immediate emergency contraception?  If Grubhub can get anyone lunch in an hour, it should not be too hard for a county health department to deliver any teenage girl who wants one, a  free Plan B pill that day. That certainly is a lot better outcome for everyone than a trip months later to a Kermit Gosnell House of Horrors abortion clinic.

In any event, abortion is hardly the salient issue for 2024, but a lot of Republicans need to refresh their thinking about it.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.

Image: FamilyMan88