Republican strategists are saying it’s time to get rid of the “pro-life” moniker.
In a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans earlier this week, the head of a super PAC allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that polling shows that “pro-life” no longer resonates with the party’s voters.
“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions — at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, told NBC News, which first reported on the meeting.
The rethinking of the label follows a series of election losses for Republicans following the Supreme Court ruling that ended nationwide abortion access, sending abortion decision-making to the states.
The high court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, shifted voters’ opinions on the terms pro-life and pro-choice, according to the super PAC’s polling. The polling results were shown to the senators in the meeting by Steven Law, a former aide for Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
Senators said it made them realize that they needed to be more specific with voters about their position on abortion.
“Many voters think [pro-life] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and pro-choice now can mean any number of things,” Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican. told the news network. “So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels, that they’ve shifted. So if you’re going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific.”
Since the Dobbs decision kicked the abortion issue back to the states, 22 Republican-led states have imposed restrictions on access to abortions.
There was no immediate new term agreed upon at the meeting.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said the meeting focused on “pro-baby policies,” although he did not offer that label at the meeting as a possible new term for those seeking limits on abortions.
Every state allows abortion to save the life of the mother. Even so, Democrats, pro-choice groups and mainstream media outlets frequently refer to state laws placing gestational limits on abortion as “bans.”
For example, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted North Carolina in May for passing “an extreme abortion ban.” That law bars most abortions after 12 weeks gestation, with exceptions for rape, incest and “life-limiting” anomalies, consistent with the views of most Americans, as shown in polling.
Nearly two-thirds of adults support prohibiting most abortions after the first trimester, or 12 to 13 weeks of pregnancy, while only 37% support second-trimester abortions, according to the latest Gallup Poll.
Even so, Democrats are winning the messaging battle as pro-life advocates struggle to pin them down on what limits they support, if any, on elective pregnancy termination.
Christina Reynolds, a spokesperson for Emily’s List, an activist group that helps elect Democratic women who support abortion access, said Republicans underestimate how much voters understand the issue.
“I think their messaging was not the problem. Their position is the problem and they’re going to be stuck with those positions,” she told NBC News. “At the end of the day, voters are clear in poll after poll and in election results after election results that they believe that people should have the right to make their own health care decision, that they support abortion rights, that they support Roe v. Wade.”
• Valerie Richardson contributed to this report.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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