What you’re witnessing is a travesty to be sure. As someone that doesn’t think like these assholes, I’m left as confused as you are. That said, I’m sitting in this frying-pan and have had some time to think about it while the heat rises.

An optimistic view would have me think: these are religious fundamentalists that are focused on the present and are not at all future-focused on outcomes or unintended consequences. As die-hard religious types, data, logic, and sound reasoning are all superseded by faith and feelings. It’s no conspiracy, but rather an outcome of The Southern Strategy which is more or less an artificial “movement” generated by the GOP. Hopefully, a major shift in politics would see this all go away or greatly diminish in the public eye.

A pessimistic view has me thinking that this is an artifact, a symptom, of an upper-class funding policy to punch down on everyone in order to create a robust underclass to rule. This means saddling the middle-class with more debt, expenses, and fewer options than before, rendering them poor and less of a threat. For the whole abortion issue, it means eliminating all but the most expensive and labor-intensive option for pregnancy: birth and child-rearing. This may also be a ham-fisted way to force positive (or more positive) population growth which also translates to more economic activity an profit for the top. This is also fueled by a very expensive child-care and healthcare markets. These days, parents get horribly crunched trying to balance two household incomes, health expenses, and basic workday supervision for their kids. People are being asked, more and more, to either settle for a lower standard of living, spend their way to being poorer, or just have fewer children. The latter stops being an option with right-wing policy like the topic at hand.