Fun fact: Women comprise the largest group of registered voters in America. They also tend to turn up at the polls, as more than 64% of said registered voters did in the last presidential election. 

Which poses a bit of a problem for Republicans. A “woman problem,” if you will. The thing is, Republican policies aren’t exactly winning over fans among the female contingent – unsurprising, when you consider that these policies place women in active danger. Young women in particular tend to skew Democratic, and are turning up to elections in ever-more-significant quantities.

It’s true that white women, as a voting bloc, have historically been loyal to Trump. But recent polling suggests that support may be waning – as an example, exit polls of the South Carolina Republican primary showed that 45% of women voted for Nikki Haley, despite presumably being aware that she was a very long shot to win. That is a big deal.

So why might women voters be turned off by Trump? The list of possible reasons is fairly endless, from the fact that he was found liable for sexual assault to the litany of sexist statements he’s made about his female contemporaries over the years. But the fact that he claims to support a nationwide 15-week abortion ban…that might just be too much for some to take. 

The thing is, people – men, women, whomever – have a tendency to enjoy, you know…having rights. And they usually want to keep them.

And yet women across the country have seen their rights stripped away in recent months, with 24 states either banning abortions or appearing poised to do so. The effects such bans will have on women’s health are obvious, and frankly intolerable – and Republican women seem to be waking up to that reality. 

So what is the GOP doing to try to win over the much-needed women’s vote? Wordplay! They’re not changing their policies…they’re just changing the way they talk about them. Emphasizing better care for pregnant women – presumably even the ones who very much do not want to be pregnant – although it must be noted that maternal care has never appeared to be a big Republican priority. Redirecting towards issues like crime and the economy as other issues that affect women voters. 

To be clear, they’re not addressing the fact that women – and men – overwhelmingly support abortion access. They’re waving shiny things to distract voters, to make them think about other issues. Or maybe they’re thinking what conservative podcast host Alex Clark said last June. “Politics,” she said, “should not be a priority right now for conservative women.” They would be happier if they would “go back to biblical roots and what God had designed for women to do.”

There you go. The quiet part, said right out loud. Republicans do not care about their female voters. They don’t care about their health, they don’t care about their futures, and – fundamentally – they don’t care about their children.