The GOP's most aggressive culture warrior, Ron DeSantis, gave the keynote address at the first annual "The Liberty Moms" meeting in Tampa, Florida last weekend. He was there to lend his explosive star power to their self-described agenda of "battling mask mandates in schools, banning library books that address sexuality and gender identity, and curtailing lessons on racial inequity and discrimination." He is, in fact, their one true leader, using their authoritarian intimidation platform as his re-election agenda and possible springboard to the White House.
Considering his position as a general in the culture war, you'd think that DeSantis would be first in line with abortion bans and fugitive pregnant women laws like so many of his fellow GOP leaders. Instead, he stood by silently while the Attorney General of Ohio rushed right into the fray to doubt the now confirmed story of a 10-year-old rape victim who had to be transported to Indiana by her mother to obtain an abortion because she missed the 6-week deadline by 3 days. Not to be outdone, the Attorney General of Indiana immediately declared that he would investigate the doctor who performed the procedure even though abortion is still legal in the state (for the time being.) The state of Texas, meanwhile, got the conservative judiciary involved by suing the Biden administration over its guidance that emergency rooms are still obligated to perform abortions in case of a medical emergency, calling it an "attempt to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic" and forcing "hospitals and doctors to commit crimes and risk their licensure under Texas law." And with a bracing amount of clarity even Texas can't claim, Idaho Republicans voted to reject a "life of the mother" exception from its party platform.
