Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said the lawmakers are falling for a trap set by proponents of abortion rights who want to focus the debate on extremes such as rape instead of other abortions.
“It’s a tactic to talk about this rather than the 98 percent of abortions because they know that they lose it,” Dannenfelser said.
She said that SBA List is working on a new training program for candidates and lawmakers to “make sure that in future elections, a candidate can never with a straight face say, ‘I never thought about that or I got caught flat-footed.’”
Marina Ein, whose public relations firm does crisis communications, said the party needs some kind of “sensitivity training” for its candidates if it wants to do better in the next elections.
“It all boils down to whether or not the Republican Party thinks this is a problem,” she said. “If they want to make inroads with women, then they need to subject every one of their candidates to sensitivity training—not to mention reality training.”
The training would have to “educate politicians on subjects that are absolutely taboo, except to say, ‘I sympathize with the pain of anyone who goes through fill-in-the-blank,’” she said.
While learning to shut up about sensitive subjects would be a huge step forward for many GOP politicians, I think this is a band-aid. Providing sensitivity training to clueless power groups is like teaching someone to be a high-functioning sociopath instead of the kind who turns into a serial killer.