DEAR EDITOR:

Conservatives are using a bait-and-switch game to hide their long game from us. House Speaker Mike Johnson called the representatives back into Washington, and they met briefly. After they parted, the news anchors told us what was going on. The Democrats would give in if the Republicans agreed to have a vote on the ACA subsidies by year’s end. The Democrats would not approve the budget without that vote, and Speaker Johnson said they would get one.

Then a new face appeared on the screen. This person reported that the Republicans would agree to the vote before the end of the year, but that didn’t mean it would be successful. They said they would not have the vote unless Democrats agreed to legislation that would ban abortion forever. It would apply to the entire nation, with no exceptions. Johnson called them into session.

Now, that’s underhanded. When the Supreme Court replaced Roe with Dobbs, the justices left it up to each state. Many states around the nation made certain they were in compliance with the choice they made for their citizens. Here in Ohio, we passed a law for choice into the Ohio Constitution.

Even so, many Republicans muttered about wanting to reverse it. There is a conservative think-tank in a mostly male club that lets members celebrate their heritage. They want America to remain the way it was when they were young men, with life as their fathers had spoken about America. They said it was primarily white and should stay that way. People who were nonwhites should be discouraged from voting. The club members believe that outlawing abortion would affect the number of babies born with white or nonwhite skin, and they want more babies of white skin born so that people of the white race would continue to be the largest group of all races.

Experts predicted that by 2045, white people would be only 47 percent of the country. They believed outlawing abortions would help them in two ways.

First, they believed that if abortions were banned, white women more than nonwhite women would obey that law. So more white babies would be born.

Second, they believed that nonwhite women who were pregnant were more likely to have miscarriages because of fetal defects or poor prenatal care. So again, more white babies would be born.

The idea that someone sat and came up with those ideas sickens me.

Many conservatives dislike abortion for religious reasons, but those I’m talking about want to keep America white by increasing the number of white babies. That’s what I’ve heard and read. Let’s stop pretending that those conservative family values are about pro-life when they’re really about pro-white.

LINDA COCUZZI RICHTER

Niles