Republicans are trying a new approach to abortion in the race for Congress
In the most contested races for control of the U.S. House, many Republican candidates are speaking up about women맥스카지노s 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. Mike Lawler, sitting at a kitchen table with his wife in one ad said, 맥스카지노There can be no place for extremism in women맥스카지노s health care.맥스카지노
In California, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel explains her own journey to parenthood with in vitro fertilization and vows, 맥스카지노I have always supported women맥스카지노s access to IVF, and will fight to defend it.맥스카지노
And in Arizona, GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani faces the camera and says, 맥스카지노I want you to hear directly from me: I trust women. I cherish new life. And I reject the extremes on abortion.맥스카지노
It맥스카지노s 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 Republicans맥스카지노 campaign arm, an acknowledgement of the GOP맥스카지노s failure to grasp the political power of women맥스카지노s reproductive care as an issue that would mobilize voters.
맥스카지노The Republicans have always known they맥스카지노re 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 맥스카지노wouldn't surprise me.맥스카지노
With the election fewer than 50 days away, the House Republican candidates are real-time road-testing how to talk about women맥스카지노s 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 Women맥스카지노s 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 right맥스카지노s longtime goal of a national abortion ban.
With Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris having replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the party맥스카지노s ticket, Democrats are capitalizing on the vice president맥스카지노s ability to mobilize women, and others, and vow to reinstate reproductive care in a campaign whose rally-goers cheer: 맥스카지노We are not going back.맥스카지노
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 didn맥스카지노t 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 맥스카지노red wave맥스카지노 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. That맥스카지노s 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: 맥스카지노I'm pro-choice.맥스카지노
Jack Pandol, the communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that in 2022, Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars 맥스카지노lying about Republican candidates맥스카지노 positions on this sensitive and nuanced issue.맥스카지노
맥스카지노Republicans can맥스카지노t let Democrats lie any longer 맥스카지노 they should be clear, direct, and forcefully push back against these false attacks.맥스카지노
Still, House Democrats are redoubling efforts to gain control of the chamber by focusing on House Republican candidates and their abortion views 맥스카지노 past and present.
맥스카지노Republicans are trying to gaslight voters,맥스카지노 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 dollars맥스카지노 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, 맥스카지노We맥스카지노ll 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 맥스카지노 a historic accomplishment 맥스카지노 during the former president맥스카지노s 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. 맥스카지노Voters have a right to know where I stand,맥스카지노 Lawler said.
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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.