With only seven months left before Election Day, House Republicans are trying – and failing – to run on their efforts to pass a national abortion ban.
Reporting from the National Journal exposes how the NRCC is unable to support its vulnerable members as they attempt to hide their anti-abortion records in Congress from voters back home.
REMINDER: Voters have rejected Republicans’ dangerous anti-choice policies in election after election, from the NY-03 special earlier this year, to Ohio, Wisconsin, Kansas, and beyond. Two thirds of the American public support a law guaranteeing a federal right to abortion and a decisive majority do not support a national abortion ban.
Two years after the Dobbs decision overturned a constitutional right to an abortion, Republicans are still struggling to formalize their message on abortion rights as Democrats leverage the issue to win elections all over the map.
The NRCC has in recent weeks advised its candidates to talk about abortion more—not less. The strategy is a pivot from last cycle, when the issue lacked concrete polling and election data to craft the most effective message.
Because of the ideological divide within the House GOP on the issue, the NRCC has avoided putting its thumb on the scale. No specific policy guidance has been made public. Multiple GOP sources have noted that Hudson may need to appeal to a wide range of opinions with the Republican Conference if he tries to run for a higher leadership post.
Hudson and the NRCC have insisted that the party has a “brand” problem, not a “policy” problem, and that candidates can win by clearly articulating their views. But the majority of Americans say abortion should be legal for any reason, according to a November Wall Street Journal survey.
“Self-awareness is key—and House Republicans have none. GOP Leadership and the NRCC Chair have failed to recognize that the public unquestionably disagrees with their anti-abortion, anti-freedom agenda,” DCCC spokesman Viet Shelton said in a statement. “By taking the NRCC’s ill-conceived advice, vulnerable Republicans are going to hand back the House majority to Democrats.”
The legal knock-on effects of the Dobbs decision have created further headaches for House Republicans, as state court rulings and GOP-dominated state legislatures could complicate their messaging.
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February held that stored embryos had the same legal protections as children. The decision meant that fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization could potentially be banned in the state.
The Alabama decision left many antiabortion politicians scrambling to clarify their position on IVF. In the House, there are two competing bills related to the issue, and GOP activity on both demonstrates the dilemma many vulnerable centrist Republicans face.
Republican Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia introduced the Life at Conception Act at the beginning of this Congress, after the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs but before the Alabama ruling on IVF. The bill would enshrine a right to life at the moment of fertilization, but it would not have a carve-out for IVF, meaning that embryos created in a lab could get the same protections
Democrats have hammered Miller-Meeks over her past cosponsorship of the Life at Conception Act. The DCCC announced an ad launch Tuesday aimed at the Iowan and other vulnerable Republicans over their past support of the legislation.
