In the most contested races for control of the U.S. House, many Republican candidates are speaking up about women’s rights to abortion access and reproductive care in new and surprising ways, a deliberate shift for a GOP blindsided by some political ramifications of the post-Roe v. Wade era.
Looking directly into the camera for ads, or penning personal op-eds in local newspapers, the Republicans are trying to distance themselves from some of the more aggressive anti-abortion ideas coming from their party and its allies. Instead the Republican candidates are working quickly to spell out their own views separate from a GOP that for decades has worked to put restrictions on reproductive care.
In New York, endangered GOP Rep Mark Lawler, sitting at a kitchen table with his wife in one ad said, “There can be no place for extremism in women’s health care.”
In California, GOP Rep Michelle Steel explains her own journey to parenthood with in vitro fertilization and vows, “I have always supported women’s access to IVF, and will fight to defend it.”
And in Arizona, GOP Rep Juan Ciscomani faces the camera and says, “I want you to hear directly from me: I trust women. I cherish new life. And I reject the extremes on abortion.”
It’s a remarkable new approach as the Republican Party works to prevent losses this November that could wipe out its majority control of the House. It comes in a fast-moving election season with high-profile and gripping stories of women's lives being upended and endangered by abortion restrictions.
The new strategy is both sanctioned and promoted by the House Republicans’ campaign arm, an acknowledgement of the GOP’s failure to grasp the political power of women’s reproductive care as an issue that would mobilize voters.
“The Republicans have always known they’re actually on the wrong side of this issue," said Ilyse Hogue, former president of the group previously known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, who is now a senior fellow at New America, a think tank in Washington. She said the party's shift “wouldn't surprise me.”
With the election fewer than 50 days away, the House Republican candidates are real-time road-testing how to talk about women’s access to reproductive care at a time when young women are more liberal than in decades.
On the national level, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has both celebrated the Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case overruling Roe v. Wade yet insisted it's best left to the states to decide whether to allow abortions. He's also distanced himself from the far right’s longtime goal of a national abortion ban.
With Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris having replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the party’s ticket, Democrats are capitalizing on the vice president’s ability to mobilize women, and others, and vow to reinstate reproductive care in a campaign whose rally-goers cheer: “We are not going back.”
The campaigns for control of the U.S. House are as tight as ever, with a few seats expected to determine which party holds the majority in the chamber, and whether Congress will become aligned with the White House or a potential opposition check on a new administration.
Republicans admit they did not expect abortion access to become such a determinative issue when the Supreme Court, in 2022, decided the Dobbs case that struck down Roe v. Wade, ending the right to abortion that had been the law of the land for nearly 50 years.
Voters didn’t always mention abortion access as a top concern in the 2022 election, Republicans said, but it became disqualifying for candidates who were portrayed as too extreme. The anti-abortion movement's push for a national abortion ban and proposed rollbacks of fertility treatments sparked a new focus. That November's promised “red wave” of Republican election victories never materialized and the party barely won a House majority.
By summer 2024, polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban and a rising number support access to abortions for any reason. That’s an increase from 2021, a year before the Supreme Court decision.
In one contested San Diego-area House race, the Republican challenger Matt Gunderson speaks directly to the camera and declares: “I'm pro-choice.”
Jack Pandol, the communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that in 2022, Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars “lying about Republican candidates’ positions on this sensitive and nuanced issue.”
“Republicans can’t let Democrats lie any longer — they should be clear, direct, and forcefully push back against these false attacks.”
Still, House Democrats are redoubling efforts to gain control of the chamber by focusing on House Republican candidates and their abortion views — past and present.
“Republicans are trying to gaslight voters,” said CJ Warnke, communications director of the House Majority PAC, which is the outside group supporting House Democrats.
House Majority PAC is pummeling Republicans with millions of dollars’ worth of campaign ads warning against extreme GOP views on abortion and reproductive care. It has pulled up the voting records, bill sponsorships and past commentary from both incumbents and newcomers and is promising to spend at least $100 million this election cycle on the issue in House races.
Democrats, too, have shifted to speaking more openly and forcefully in favor of reproductive care, led in many ways by Harris' example.
Rep Suzan DelBene, the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, vowed, “We’ll make sure the American people will know exactly how the Republicans have voted to restrict reproductive rights."
Congress has served as a key battleground in efforts to advance the anti-abortion agenda for decades, as Republicans have repeatedly proposed legislation to limit different types of abortion services, including late-term abortions.
Trump, along with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, orchestrated the confirmation of three justices to the nine-member Supreme Court — a historic accomplishment — during the former president’s term in office, fulfilling a longtime party goal of shifting the court to a conservative majority.
First celebrated as a conservative victory when the court overtured Roe v. Wade, the aftermath of the Dobbs decision soon became a political liability for Republicans as states began instituting abortion bans.
One of the nation's leading anti-abortion advocacy groups, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, is encouraging candidates in a strategy memo to recommit to ending abortion and portraying the Democrats as extreme in seeking to make abortion access available nationwide.
But GOP Rep Lawler said it was important he address the issue head on because Democrats are attacking him as extreme on the issue. “Voters have a right to know where I stand,” Lawler said.
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
28 Comments
lincolnman
Repubs are in a SERIOUS defensive stance on the issue of a women's control over her own body...
Just ask them one simple question - "does life begin at conception" - and like our MAGA-posters here, they run away faster than they do from Project 2025...
They are all over the place - you have the hard-core evangelicals that refuse to support any abortion after conception. then there are the "inbetweeners" who favor allowing abortions until the first or second term. You have some that support exceptions for rape and incest and others that don't.
Trump made perhaps his greatest FLIP-FLOP when he went from a life begins at conception guy to one that could support "killing babies" until the 15th week - then went even father and said he'd "protect women's reproductive freedom"... That's no different than Kamala Harris' position and a part of the DNC platform...
No one believes anything the Repubs say on abortion since they've done nothing but FLIP-FLOP all over the place...
A majority of American women, even in Red States, want their medical freedom - and they all believe the Repubs will take that away, no matter how much they equivocate and dodge answering a fundamentally easy question...
stormcrow
Roe v. Wade has been overturned and now you own it.
You’re the dog who caught the car. And didn’t know what to do after catching it.
wallace
The GOP said abortions were not an election issue. Why the change of heart?
patkim
It's nice to see some Republicans understanding the state of the world today; that people are becoming more and more aware that pro-life should also include the life and rights of women. Allowing access to abortion and reproductive health care is essential to ensuring that women have a right to live.
As to the election, voters will have a choice whether they can believe those who have suddenly changed their stance on abortion, or stick with Democrats who have always believed in women's rights. I think the GOP will need more time to prove to Americans that they are being truly sincere and genuine in their beliefs.
bass4funk
Technically, it's not, not in the top 3 issues
*Economy *31%
Immigration 24%
Taxes/Gov. Spending 14%
Abortion 14%
Gov Leadership 10%
Abortion is there, but not the biggest top concern for the vast majority of Americans.
wallace
"In the most contested races for control of the U.S. House, many Republican candidates are speaking up about women’s rights to abortion access and reproductive care in new and surprising ways, a deliberate shift for a GOP blindsided by some political ramifications of the post-Roe v. Wade era."
Underworld
bass4funk
The GOP said abortions were not an election issue. Why the change of heart?
Sure, except:
Voters didn’t always mention abortion access as a top concern in the 2022 election, Republicans said, but it became disqualifying for candidates who were portrayed as too extreme.
For a lot of voters, Trump and Vance are too extreme.
bass4funk
This is why they are not heavily focused on the issue, kind of the way the left tries and avoid the economic issue.
For a lot of voters, 4 years of a Biden/Harris economy with their high taxation and high costs where people can hardly afford the basics is way too extreme.
Underworld
bass4funk
For a lot of voters, Trump and Vance are too extreme.
Then they are hardly going to vote for Trump with his inflationary tariff/sales tax scheme.
Biden/Harris finally got inflation that they inherited from Trump's failed Covid policies down to a 2.5% sweet spot. And now with the fed cutting interest rates by half a point, Biden/Harris have achieved the soft landing of the economy.
patkim
I really think that the GOP's view, or at least Trump's and Vance's view of what a family is really makes your choices on how you make a family limited. In people's quest to have a family, sometimes an abortion is necessary to save a women's life. That's the reality that the GOP is only now beginning to understand.
I also don't get why you would limit IVF as it's been proven to be another way for couples to have a baby. And wouldn't having your own "biological" baby please the right, since it seems they only feel you can be "humble" if you have a "biological" child.
Also, I can't forget that Vance says things like "almost always the people who are the most deranged and psychotic are the ones who don't have kids". Which by itself is totally wrong, since having or not having kids doesn't make you a particular way. But by limiting ways to have kids, and controlling reproductive freedom, they are really contradicting themselves.
To sum up, a vote for Trump and Vance, is a vote for taking away your freedom for life and having a family.
bass4funk
Keep dreaming
https://x.com/mitchellvii/status/1825207701913170076
https://x.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1791099773702767057
If you are dumb about the economy, you might think that, luckily, a lot of us who invest don't.
https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1836252970692022641
I'll take the word of one of the most prolific investors on the planet over this admin
lincolnman
You do realize that all your "X" cites just prove how disconnected you are from reality...I mean last week, "cattur&2"?
If you're trying to prove how far into the alt-reality far-right bubble you are, you're succeeding...and we're laughing...
Underworld
bass4funk
*Then they are hardly going to vote for Trump with his inflationary tariff/sales tax scheme.*
Biden/Harris finally got inflation that they inherited from Trump's failed Covid policies down to a 2.5% sweet spot.
I'll take the word of 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-nobel-prize-winning-economists-say-trump-policies-will-fuel-inflation-2024-06-25/
And the Financial Times now says that Harris is more trusted on the economy than Trump:
https://www.ft.com/content/cf9a7c4d-3b82-4867-892c-f4f95daebbc7
Some dude
I'll take the word of 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-nobel-prize-winning-economists-say-trump-policies-will-fuel-inflation-2024-06-25/
And the Financial Times now says that Harris is more trusted on the economy than Trump:
https://www.ft.com/content/cf9a7c4d-3b82-4867-892c-f4f95daebbc7
I admire your willingness to engage with someone who would deny that Trump had two arms and two legs if a democrat said it.
I'll predict his response now: "This person on Twitter knows more than your so-called liberal elite economists, and the Financial Times is a limey rag, LOL"
bass4funk
As does yours
You can laugh and so do we, right back at you.
bass4funk
You go and do that., they didn't create one of the largest financial magazines of our time with one of the most prolific financial experts and has been a gold standard in the world of finance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgdzImP8O4k&list=PLpndQ-APwbNXDxxBubkkkDQrTaJXt_ix0
https://www.ft.com/content/cf9a7c4d-3b82-4867-892c-f4f95daebbc7
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election-2024/2024/09/19/harris-trump-pennsylvania-franklin-marshall-poll-quinnipiac-economy-inflation/stories/202409180090
bass4funk
Hmm..
Have no idea what you are on or talking about. ROFL!
Strangerland
The Republicans just actively blocked IVF protections.
They've banned abortion, they want to ban IVF, and they want to put you in jail for daring to think of your own body.
This is Trump's Dystopian America with the Trump Abortion Ban.
Strangerland
The Trump Tax Tariff will cost the average American family more than $6000 dollars a year.
Remember, tariffs are paid by the importing country, not the exporting country. And all those American importers need to spend more money for more paperwork to deal with the Trump Tariff Tax, and they will pass both the overhead and the Trump Tariff Tax onto the consumers.
This makes Trump's proposed tax a regressive tax, whereby the people who make the least end up paying the highest portion of their income to this tax, while the richest pay the littlest.
patkim
An excellent point. Is it any wonder why Trump is so terrible at business with his who-knows how many bankruptcies, lawsuits against his business practices, and complaints from former employees and ex-business partners. His tariffs last time really hurt farmers, and he ended up using whatever money that was received to pay stimulus checks to these farmers to help them. It just doesn't make any sense.
bass4funk
Seems like people were much happier before this admin got in.
1.9% Trump
INFLATION RATE
17% Biden/Harris
$2.17 Trump
GAS PRICES
$3.96 Biden/Harris
$1096 Trump
AVERAGE RENT
$2395 Biden/Harris
UP62% Trump
NASDAQ
UP13.8% Biden/Harris
+3.5% Trump
GROCERY PRICES
+25% Biden/Harris
NO CHANGE
ELECTRICITY
UP21.43% Biden/Harris
7.1% Trump
REAL AVG HOURLY EARNINGS
-3.5% Biden/Harris
Data
Is that $1096 per gallon or per liter?
Phew. Imagine if they changed electricity.
bass4funk
Rhetorical question?
You ok there??
J101
Now focus, bass. Is 3 Dollars per gallon better or worse than over a thousand Dollars? Really focus now before you answer, dum.bass.
bass4funk
You know what I meant, no need to get cute and sorry, I am only human, Not a liberal collective cyborg. apologies.
Strangerland
Fox lies you know.
Strangerland
It’s fun watching the right freaking out about Harris not doing what the right thinks she shroud, and seeing her passing them in all the polls regardless.
It seems she’s just better strategist than trump. Also he’s just a much worse candidate. More baggage than a 787.
bass4funk
No freaking out, kinda funny watching her pour fuel all over herself. Just let her continue to not talk
By thinking the voters are dumb and all she has to do is say nothing or the same thing over and over again, hope that no one notices her inconsistencies?