How many voters know that the Democratic Party supports legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy on demand for virtually any reason? How many voters know this position aligns with only six other countries in the world – three of them, not incidentally, being North Korea, Vietnam and China?
How many voters know that Democrats want to pass a federal law banning states from stopping sex-selective abortions or the dismembering of the post-viable unborn or the requirement of parental and guardian notification for minors before getting abortions? How many know that Democrats want to strip medical workers of their conscience rights by compelling them to participate in the procedure or lose their jobs? How many people know that Democrats want to eliminate the popular Hyde Amendment, which stops the federal government from funding abortions with taxpayer dollars?
Now, maybe a majority of voters aren’t aware of Democrats’ maximalist positions because the media endlessly lies and obfuscates them. And maybe pollsters rarely ask useful questions on the topic because the answers are a lot more complicated than they’d like. And, maybe, after the shock of Roe v. Wade being overturned – treated by Democrats as if it had been chiseled into magical stone tablets over the past 50 years – the energy and passion of the debate will temporarily reside on the pro-abortion side. And, maybe, if every voter knew all the facts, it still wouldn’t matter. Abortion is a complex and emotional issue.
None of that excuses the inability, or aversion, of national conservatives to make a coherent and compelling pro-life case. Sometimes it feels like Republicans are more terrified by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision than pro-abortionists. Even if pollsters were right about the unpopularity of abortion restrictions, there is this crazy thing that politicians occasionally engage in called “persuasion.” Rather than just chasing around voters for approval, this entails convincing them with arguments.
The problem, it seems, is that too many in the GOP accept the media’s concern trolling or listen to risk-averse advice of the consulting class. Recently, for example, Janet Protasiewicz beat conservative Dan Kelly by 10 percentage points to flip Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Virtually every outlet treated the race as a national referendum on abortion. Anonymous consultants were recruited by one big media outlet after the next to offer off-the-record comments voicing their deep concern about the deleterious effects of the abortion issue.
Weird how this dynamic only works in one direction.
In 2020, Brian Kemp, who signed a heartbeat bill limiting abortion to the first six weeks a year earlier, easily defeated media darling Stacey Abrams to win the Georgia governorship (in a state that Donald Trump also lost). Abrams made abortion, along with guns, the central issue of her campaign, carpet-bombing the state with ads. In 2018, Terry McAuliffe also attempted to make abortion the dominant issue of his campaign against Glenn Youngkin. At the time, a Washington Post piece promised that the race was “our first big test of the new politics of abortion.” Well, Youngkin, who supports 15-week abortion limits, won. Alas, there were no handwringing deep dives from the Post about abortion undermining Democrats.
Georgia and Virginia are swing states. Ohio, where Mike DeWine signed a six-week ban in 2019 and won the state by 10 points in 2022, was one not long ago, as well. This is the same state in which pro-life J.D. Vance easily beat “moderate” Tim Ryan. This week, the governor of Florida and prospective presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, signed a six-week ban on abortion. One imagines DeSantis will be just as popular among Republicans in his state since the bill passed overwhelmingly in the Florida Assembly. Of course, conventional wisdom says this hurts his presidential chances.
But Ohio, Virginia and Florida teach us nothing about abortion. Only the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, it seems, matters.
Whatever the case, the Republican nominee doesn’t need to impress California voters. They need to convince social conservatives in Virginia, Ohio and Florida to go out and vote. Does anyone really think DeSantis would be better off politically if he vetoed a pro-life bill?
Running from the abortion conversation, as so many Republicans seem to do, creates the impression they don’t really believe in their own stated position. Quite often, that’s probably the case. But if you’re going to run as a pro-lifer anyway, allowing the opposition to define your beliefs makes little sense. Especially when making a rational and moral case for protecting viable life, at the very least, isn’t particularly difficult – certainly not when contrasted with the left’s extremism.
Then again, if every Republican lost every race in the country over abortion, it still wouldn’t make killing human beings for convenience any less of a moral abomination or the fight to stop it any less important. A majority position isn’t, by default, moral or decent – quite the contrary. And meaningful political fights aren’t predicated on short-term gains. Overturning Roe took 50 years. The political fight over abortion might take even longer.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books – the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter @davidharsanyi.
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The GOP will get right with women’s rights or not hold meaningful political power in this country ever again. Tick tock…..
For decades, Democrats played by GOP rules on abortion. They embraced restrictions, called for alternatives, asserted that they wanted a world with fewer abortions.
What did the grateful Republicans do in return? Worked as hard as they could do destroy women’s bodily autonomy until they got to whatever we have today.
We tried to compromise on abortion but you told us in no uncertain terms that it was a zero-compromise issue. Message received. We won’t compromise either. And frankly we never should have. Pregnancies are to be managed by women and doctors, not politicians.
Abortion is a States Rights issue, which is where it properly belongs under our constitution. That is what federalism is all about. Anything not specifically delineated as a responsibility of the federal government in the Constitution of the United States of America falls to either the individual states or the individual citizens to decide. In this case, the Supreme Court has rightly decided that the issue belongs at the state level, with each state setting its own rules governing the matter. Case closed.
The federal government should stay out of the matter, as that would only lead to the Democrats eventually codifying into law abortion right up to and including the moment of birth. Once you start getting the federal government involved in this matter, that will be the eventual outcome no matter what you think otherwise. The Democrat Party controls the administrative state that is the federal government, so stop trying to hand them an opening by which legalize abortion on demand right up to the moment of birth. Think a little bit. So take the win fellow Republicans and stop looking for ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for once.
Now if the citizens of any respective state want to change how abortion is handled in their respective state, they are certainly free to do so by electing state representatives if they are in the majority of voters.
Hard to argue with what you are saying.
By your idiot comment shows you must have attended Stanford or Columbia University.
Oh wait. You couldn’t have attended because your comment is stupid.
Go back to aarp since you have the same mentality as them.
I’m now paying for anybody’s abortion, where are the people that weren’t aborted?
NOT paying
i suuport a womans right to choose without exceptions, and the hyde amendment is not popular its garbage
ron reagan for president
And yet when children are gunned down in schools the right rallys around the guns, not the kids.
Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr Carrie’s the flag of China while Trump carried the cross for Benjamin Netanyahu wall of faith. Trump next calling a movie where he carries the cross for Jesus. Alvin Bragg Carrie’s the monkey for China.
You know when you stop & think how insidiously the Federal government has worked its way into the lifestyle of the citizenry it’s a chilling “gotcha” moment. When did the U.S. citizenry give up on individual autonomy? Apparently, it’s some kind of a mind numbing “slow acquiesce” of sub-consciousness. It’s so sad to see how many of us argue over something that shouldn’t even be a question if you believe in God. Of course, if you don’t… hence, the arguments. For some, (& that ‘some” seems to be growing exponentially) the Federal Government must be their “god”. All rights exclusive to the governance. Wow!!
None of the federal candidates should have anything to do with abortion. This was just decided to be a state issue, so the issue should be dealt with within each state. This is the true conservative position, and the federal candidates need to push this fact to their constituents
Interesting article and informative.
The decision for whether abortion should be legal or illegal lies within States Rights. Not the government or illegal and unconstitutional executive order’s including courts have the authority to decide whether or not abortion is legal or illegal.
Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution or any States Constitutions does it say abortion is legal.
Therefore, it is up to each State to decide WITHOUT federal government interference.
It isn’t that the GOP is afraid of Dobbs, the problem is that there is no consensus among GOP voters regarding what limits to place on abortion.
Now that Roe is gone, let the individual States decide how to handle abortion and leave the Feds and the federal courts out of it.
According to the photo above, if it’s Their body and Their choice then it should also be Their money.