How abortion could cost Donald Trump the election

Donald Trump wants another chance with America. Things weren’t perfect the first time around, sure, particularly for women – but still, he’d really like to give it another go. Cue the announcement of his new abortion policy, which is to include exceptions for rape, incest and protection for the life of the mother – and which is clearly Trump’s attempt at rescuing the Republicans from their poor midterm results.

It’s an infuriating gesture but, mercifully, if the widespread backlash against Trump’s anti-abortion legacy is anything to go by, then for the voting US public it will be too little too late. And his latest “concession” on the issue isn’t fooling anyone.

The voices of women calling for “hands off our bodies” – and the shocking experiences of people like Kate Cox, who ended up in a legal battle in Texas over her medical emergency – are ringing out across America. Meanwhile, the consequences of so many unforgivably restrictive laws on abortion continue to endanger the lives of women: not helped by suggestions from Trump himself that he’d agree with a 15-week federal abortion ban.

He’s already shown himself to be vague and unclear and wavering on the issue: simultaneously boasting about being responsible for ending Roe v Wade, making false claims about the Democrats’ position on the subject and saying that he supports IVF – which some Republicans have recently begun to oppose. He’s also stated that he believes the issue of abortion should be decided by individual states.

So, if Trump is now expecting to successfully dangle his new abortion policy – with its scant and still painfully draconian exceptions – in the faces of the very women who have suffered at his hands, it won’t work. There’s no solace in his version of, “I’m sorry for what I did, this time it will be different”, or in making himself out to be “moderate”, or in expecting all to be forgiven. He’s trying to appeal to all voter bases – and it is about to backfire, bigly.

Women and their allies the world over won’t forgive or forget what he did – or his confused rhetoric over babies being “executed” after birth.

During his time in office, Trump – the self-advertised “most pro-life president ever” – set in motion the necessary components to complete the destruction of Roe v Wade and all resulting abortion protections, meaning that when he left the White House he also left women across America reeling from the devastating theft of their access to life-saving abortion care.

And while it may have been one thing to overturn Roe v Wade, it’s been another thing entirely for America to live with it. Women across the country – even the Republicans who stood with the overturning of Roe – have witnessed the true implications of the new abortion bans in real time.

Trump’s actions have resulted in women who are experiencing miscarriages being unable to access life-saving healthcare; they have put the lives and wellbeing of mothers across the country in significant danger, and then – in perfect sequential order – they’ve led to the controversial Alabama ruling that embryos created through IVF should be considered children, throwing the future and viability of IVF facilities into confusion and risk.

This ruling has been particularly significant in waking people up to the real issues because now we have “pro-life” women who are relying on IVF to get pregnant finally sitting up and taking notice. The realisation is weighty. And this is how it will spell danger for Trump: because women across America (even Republicans) are finally paying attention to their reproductive freedoms. Take away one reproductive freedom and you endanger them all.

Republicans appear to have underestimated the intensity of the response to this kind of control on women’s autonomy – and as Trump gears up for his second shot at the White House, he knows it. That’s why we’ve heard him say: “Without the exceptions … you’re not gonna win on this issue ... but you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.” It’s politicking – and it’s completely transparent.

But that is, after all, what the lives of women boil down to for politicians like Trump: picking the right number of weeks at which to exercise the control of government and law enforcement on our bodies while trying to please one group without alienating the other. It’s a numbers game – and it’s rigged against us.

Here’s an alternative numbers game: in November, voters in Florida will have the opportunity for a final say over the six-week abortion ban, which is set to begin on 1 May. We know that when voters have a say, they always say yes to abortion.

So, my message to voting women, as a woman who’s experienced abortion: when it comes to picking the next US president, vote with your body. Vote with your whole heart. Vote for the freedoms to live.

Let Trump’s own stance on the issue be his downfall.

Amelia Loulli’s debut poetry collection ‘Slip’ will be published by Jonathan Cape on 23 May