Republican candidates facing a tough reality check from Kansas voters are softening their once uncompromising anti-abortion stances as they head into the general election, acknowledging that strict bans are unpopular and that the issue could be a major driver in fall campaigns.
In swing states and even in conservative corners of the country, several Republicans have shifted their rhetoric on abortion bans, recently emphasizing support for exemptions. Some noticeably stopped discussing details altogether. Now that the Supreme Court has turned what has long been a theoretical argument into reality, fierce battles have erupted in Republican-dominated state legislatures.
In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, the vehemently anti-abortion Republican candidate for governor, recently said that “the people of Pennsylvania” will “decide what abortion looks like” in the state, not the governor. In Minnesota, Scott Jensen, a family physician who said in March that he would “try to ban abortion” as governor, said in a video released before the Kansas vote that he does support some exceptions: “If I wasn’t clear before , I want to be clear now.
Republican consultants for the Senate and House campaigns said Thursday that while they still believe inflation and the economy will swing voters to the GOP, candidates will need to talk about abortion to blunt Democratic attacks that the position of the party is over. They began advising Republicans to approve bans that would allow exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest, or those that endanger the mother’s life. They told the candidates to emphasize on women’s care during and after pregnancy.
“If we’re going to ban abortion, there are things we need to do to make sure that the need for abortion is reduced and that women are not at risk,” said Nancy Mays, Republican of South Carolina, who won the rape and incest exemption in her state abortion law as a state representative. Now, she says, Republicans should push for expanded access to gynecological and obstetrical care, contraception, including emergency contraception, and even protect the right of women to leave their states to get an abortion without fear of prosecution.
The announcements alone cannot free the GOP from the news drumbeat since the Supreme Court decision, including the story of a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to get an abortion and headlines about women who faced serious health problems under new, far-reaching restrictions or bans.
On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has avoided talking about abortion recently, fired a Hillsborough County state’s attorney who refused to prosecute people trying to obtain abortions prohibited by the state’s new 15-week ban, prompting angry accusations by the Democrats.
The recalibration for some began before voters in heavily Republican Kansas voted overwhelmingly Tuesday against removing abortion rights from the state constitution. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, withdrawing the constitutional right to the procedure, many Republicans have been slow to detail what will come next. As they rush to pass long-promised legislation, Republican-led legislatures have learned how difficult abortion bans can be.
“Not just the pro-choice movement, but the pro-life movement was taken aback” by the Supreme Court, said Brandon Steele, a delegate from West Virginia who pushed for a blanket ban on abortion in a special session of the legislature that ended this week with a Republican supermajority in difficulty. “Without having the talking points, without being told what to do, lawmakers had to start saying what they actually intended to do.” You could see the confusion in the room.
“We’re finding out who’s really pro-life and who’s pro-life just to get elected, not just in West Virginia, but across the country,” Mr. Steele said.
In Indiana, a special session of the state legislature to discuss a near-total abortion ban saw brutal debate over whether to include exceptions and how far those exceptions should go.
More coverage of the Kansas abortion vote
“For some, it’s very black and white: if you’re pro-life or if you’re pro-choice,” said state Sen. Kyle Walker, Republican of Indiana, who has said abortion should be legal at least in the first trimester of pregnancy. “When you’re in the gray area, you’re forced to come to terms in your own mind with where your own limits are.”
For months, Republicans argued that abortion rights would be a footnote in a midterm campaign driven by the worst inflation in 40 years, crime, immigration and a Democratic president whose approval rating hovers around 40 percent.
That’s still the public line, even after the Kansas referendum, where voters were faced with a single question rather than the multitude of factors they’ll consider in November.
But the reality during the campaign is different. Sarah Longwell, a Republican pollster, said in her focus groups that changing voters do bring up inflation and the economy when asked what issues they care about. But when he is prompted to discuss abortion, real passion flares. It shows that if Democrats can continue to campaign to keep the issue front and center, they will find an audience, she said.
Ms. Mays agreed, saying that abortions were increasing rapidly and that Republicans needed to respond.
In Minnesota, Dr. Jensen, the Republican candidate expected to take on Gov. Tim Walz, suggested that interaction with voters after Roe’s fall prompted him to clarify his stance on abortion.
“After Roe v. Wade was overturned, we told Minnesota, and we basically told everybody, that we’re going to engage in conversation,” he said. “During this conversation, I learned about the need to clarify my position.”
This development included adopting a family and maternity leave program, promoting a $2,500 adoption tax credit, and improving access to birth control, including providing over-the-counter oral contraceptives with price caps. And like Adam Laxalt, the GOP Senate candidate in Nevada, Dr. Jensen pointed to the anti-abortion safeguards already in place in Minnesota to get the issue settled rather than up for a vote this year.
Mr. Waltz said he would remain on the offensive and accept no softening of the Republican line.
“I take them at their word at first sight,” he said of Dr. Jensen and his teammate, Matt Birk, a former NFL player and abortion rights advocate. “If they get the chance, they will criminalize it while we try to protect it. So that became a central theme, obviously, I think this reversal on their part was in response to that.
The Kansas vote suggested about 65 percent of voters nationwide would reject repealing abortion rights, including majorities in more than 40 of the 50 states, according to a New York Times analysis.
Republicans believe their party can wrest the mantle of moderation from Democrats, in part by conveying empathy for pregnant women and offering exemptions to abortion bans and portraying Democrats as extremists when it comes to regulating abortion. If Democrats insist on making abortion the centerpiece of their campaigns, they argue, they risk looking out of touch with voters in an uncertain economy.
But Republicans who soften their views still have to contend with a core base of support that remains staunchly anti-abortion. Abortion opponents said Thursday that Republican candidates should not read too much into the Kansas vote, a single-question referendum with language that was criticized by voters on both sides of the aisle as confusing.
“Regardless of what the consulting class tells the candidates, they would be wise to recognize that the right-to-life community is an important constituency and an important demographic of voters,” warned Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America , a conservative organization that opposes abortion rights.
Since the Kansas vote, Democrats have stepped up efforts to squeeze their opponents between a conservative base eager for swift action to ban all abortions and a broader electorate that does not want such a thing. Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a moderate Democrat running in a Republican district in southeastern Virginia, has launched a new ad against her Republican opponent, Jen Keegans, describing her as “too extreme” on abortion. Ms Luria had initially said she would campaign on her work for the district and her support for the navy, a major force in the region, but the landscape has changed. Ms. Keegan’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
A group affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association is already touting the abortion-related remarks made by Michigan’s Tudor Dixon, who won the Republican nomination for governor this week.
“If you take Tudor Dixon at her word when it comes to banning abortion, she’s told us exactly who she is,” said the clip, titled No Exceptions, featuring clips of Ms Dixon highlighting her opposition to a number of abortion-related exemptions. Ms Dixon was unequivocal about her stance earlier this summer, writing on Twitter: “My only exception is to protect the LIFE of the mother.”
In a lengthy statement highlighting her opposition to an expected Michigan ballot measure designed to protect abortion rights, Ms. Dixon also insisted that her race will be defined by jobs, schools, crime and the ability to “afford your gas and groceries’.
For Republicans, one problem could be the extensive trail on the issue they left during the primary season.
In May, Mr. Mastriano was unequivocal in Pennsylvania as he courted Republican primary voters: “This baby deserves a right to life, whether it was conceived in incest or rape or there are other concerns for the mother.”
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