ABORTION:...Their Tone-Deaf Positions Will Doom Hispanic Republicans Mayra Flores And Monica De La Cruz...It Is Still The Hot Button Issue...Pro-Choice Keeps Winning At The Polls...Women Vs. Women?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They don't dare talk about it. We speak of area Republicans in the world of elections and abortion. They simply wish to see such talk go away. It won't. South Texas may still be seen as a Catholic stronghold, but it's never been that in the abortion front.

Mexico being so close always helped.

For years, Abortion clinics lined the Mexican side of the Rio Grande all the way from Matamoros to Ciudad Juarez. These days, Mexico is as liberal as liberal can get on the idea of women availing themselves to the medical procedure and, as we know, Mexico is as Catholic as The Vatican.

So, should we expect to see Hispanic Republican candidate Mayra Flores and GOP Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (shown in photo above) addressing the topic that roils America from coast to coast these days?

Uh, don't hold your breath.

Not a peep has come from these two, not to date. Both are mothers, although 50-year-old De La Cruz is a single one.

Should they make their positions known? It's a losing proposition for Republicans these days, but the voters do deserve to know. Neither Flores, 38, nor De La Cruz has fielded questions on abortion. Republican-led Texas is whole hog against it, so perhaps we do know.

From NYMag.com: [ Since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade about two years ago, voters in seven states (Kansas, Kentucky, California, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, and Ohio) have been given an opportunity to weigh in on abortion policy. Pro-choice forces have won all seven. With Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing forced-birth regimes in large swaths of the country and Democrats envisioning a blue wave of voters seeking to restore abortion rights, efforts to secure November 2024 ballot measures have multiplied. And while it’s unclear at this juncture exactly how many states will hold votes on abortion policy, the odds of a continued pro-choice winning streak remain pretty good, according to the available polling. ]

Yeah, that All-Quiet-On-The-Abortion-Front you see is a strategy.

But we suspect that the Democrats in both races involving Flores (34th Congressional District) and De La Cruz (neighboring 15th) will soon bring it up. Flores badly trails incumbent Vicente Gonzalez, while De la Cruz has candidate Michelle Vallejo hot on her heels.

More and more, the Rio Grande Valley is not immune to issues roiling the rest of the country. Many here like to think they are up with the times, the current times being a smorgasbord of issues once only the purview of more-in-the-know hot shots in Austin or Washington, D.C. 

It was the Ol' Go Along to Get Along attitude.

Goodbye to that.

Today's Valleyites know the score. You can dance around issues all day long, but sundown brings the headier daily tally. Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz continue to play the old game, one that had our congressional candidates head over heels above the locals on most topics.

But those who know know that Monica De La Cruz is no Kika De La Garza. And, try as she might, Mayra Flores is no Vicente Gonzalez and, really, not even the second coming of any third-rate politician we've seen around here.

Abortion will sink many down-ballot Republicans in the November General Election. That Republican presidential candidate - Donald J. Trump - knows a woman's right-to-choose is one issue he won't touch. He'll blabber all day around it, saying the states should deal with it, but Democrats are going to hang a pair of speculums around his neck just to remind him.

Women know what speculums are and what they are used for...

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