Two swing state Democrat governors have chosen to stand for late-term abortion and infanticide in Easter week. If Republicans are smart, they will hammer them on it.

First was North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who was elected in 2016 by a fraction of a point in a race rife with allegations of voter fraud on his behalf. He vetoed a bill to require life-preserving medical treatment for babies born alive after a failed abortion. The issue has become particularly prevalent after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s comments that a baby born alive in that situation should be simply “kept comfortable” while the doctor had a “discussion” about what to do next. Cooper said the bill would criminalize “a practice that simply does not exist.” So what’s the harm in the bill?

Then there was WisconsinGov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who beat Scott Walker by one point in 2018. He haspledged to veto a very similar bill making its way through the Wisconsinlegislature, calling it “redundant” and “not a productive use oftime.”

North Carolina andWisconsin are both swing states. North Carolina typically leans red, butDemocrats have won a number of statewide races there in the last decade due tothe influx of liberals to the city of Charlotte. Wisconsin was part of thefamous “blue wall” that fell in 2016 and sent Trump to the WhiteHouse, and it will be critical in 2020.

So if Republicans are smart, they will make an issue of these vetoes and hammer Cooper and Evers for standing for late-term abortion. And there are signs that they will do that. The Republican establishment, which has long considered abortion a social issue to be ignored, seems to be waking up to the deep unpopularity of late-term abortion.

This is driven in part by what seems to be real passion growing in President Trump on the life issue. Pro-lifers liked him least in the 2016 primaries, and his infamous retracted comment saying women should be criminally punished for having an abortion showed he was out of step with the pro-life movement. (Pro-lifers have long recognized that mothers seeking abortion are being pressured by family and preyed upon by the abortion issue, and it’s the abortionists who should face prosecution.) It seemed he had never really thought deeply about the issue, but a recent Politico report shows that has changed. Trump is not the ideal spokesman for the pro-life movement, but he seems to be thinking deeply about abortion and is getting results for the pro-life movement.

So Cooper, Evers, and all Democrats across the country should be put on notice — oppose commonsense abortion restrictions, and your devotion to late-term abortion will be exposed.

Photos via Flickr (NCDOT / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism)