The proposal introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) illustrates that voters must choose between “supporting a Democratic majority that wants to preserve abortion access and handing control of Congress to Republicans who are seeking to ban the procedure,” according to The New York Times.
There were other indicators before the Wisconsin contest that abortion advocates claimed put pro-life Republicans in jeopardy, because of the Dobbs decision. Since Dobbs, 18 states have enacted a range of restrictions, including Florida’s heartbeat law that bans abortion after the sixth week and the similar Texas abortion “trigger law” adopted in 2021.
Interviews by The Epoch Times with campaign strategists, advocates, and analysts, however, suggest that the conventional political wisdom expressed in the mainstream media—that Republican candidates must avoid taking strong pro-life stances in order to win the 2024 elections—misses the mark.
“If Republicans talk about the contrast, that they are for some limitations, whether it’s a heartbeat bill, a 15 weeks bill, whatever it is, they are for some restrictions, whereas the official position of the Democrats is they seek abortion-on-demand, all nine months, up to and including partial-birth abortion—when that contrast is made, it is not going to hurt Republicans,” the Atlanta-based Cahaly said.
“If Republicans stay in that range, heartbeat to 15 weeks, with those exceptions, then they will have 70 percent of the American public with them,” he said. “It is absolutely amazing—it depends on where you draw the line. You have a working majority of the American public if you just say legal in the first trimester or until a heartbeat is detected, with those exceptions.”
Republicans are at a big disadvantage, Cahaly said, “when they let the other side paint them as being more extreme.”
Democrats Outspent GOP on Abortion
Democrats spent far more money defining Republicans as abortion extremists during the 2022 midterm elections than GOP aspirants did in projecting a more accurate image, Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins told The Epoch Times.The bottom line, Perkins said, is “you don’t win a debate with your mouth shut.”
Perkins agreed that “how you talk about this” is key for Republicans in 2024 and thereafter.
“They’ve gotten off-track by allowing the Democrats to talk about banning abortion. Who’s talking about banning abortion? We’re talking about protecting human life.”
Perkins said FRC’s polling points to “about a 12-point swing” in the GOP’s favor when Republicans talk about protecting human life versus being defined as being for banning all abortions.
“It’s always been about protecting the unborn children and their mothers. It’s not about chemical abortions, or banning abortions, it’s about protecting unborn children. That’s always been our mission,” he said.
Perkins pointed out that 11 governors in competitive races in 2022 who had taken strongly pro-life positions, such as promoting the heartbeat bills, were victorious. “If you talk about it from a point of conviction, you win,” he said.
“In the 2022 midterms, governors who signed ambitious pro-life legislation into law and never flinched politically, despite running in competitive states, came out on top. Even up against Democrat darlings who were very vocal on abortion.”
In Georgia, for example, Osment noted, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp won his rematch with staunch abortion advocate Democrat Stacey Abrams by 7.5 percent. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who had signed a heartbeat law, won by 25.6 percent, and in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had signed both a heartbeat law and the 2021 trigger law, won by 11 percent.
“While we have examples of pro-life GOP candidates who were prepared and went on offense, there are also examples of candidates who were not prepared and took the ostrich strategy, burying their heads in the sand and running from the issue, allowing their opponents to define them,” Osment added, noting that Pennsylvania’s losing Republican Senate candidate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, sought to minimize the abortion issue in his race against Democrat John Fetterman.
“The losing ostrich strategy has been pushed by the inside-the-Beltway consultant/strategist class who urge candidates to totally ignore abortion and hope it goes away. It’s not going away. That’s why it is imperative that Republicans stand up and speak out on this and not let their opponents define them,” she said.
“They don’t say, ‘All we’re asking for is a reasonable approach to the issue in which there are certain restrictions,’ like most of the civilized world, by the way. We’re well out of step with the rest of the world.
“We are much more in line with the mainstream and the majority of Americans when we get down to, ‘Should we have abortion on demand until the moment of birth?’ And most Americans are going to go, ‘Absolutely not.’ Do they think it should be for the life of the mother and some other exceptions? Yes, that’s where most Americans are.”
Ryun said that he doesn’t support instituting a new national abortion law, such as the 15-week limit proposal by South Carolina’s Graham after the Dobbs decision.
“I’m a big believer in federalism,” Ryun said. “If we’re going to do this, let’s have the conversation at the state level. If they get it pushed back to the national level, hopefully, we'll have a consensus on we’re not going past this point, the first trimester.”