Anti-abortion activists are lamenting a top-down campaign strategy that has largely ignored a motivating issue for much of the Republican base. Should the party have a bad showing on Election Day, a prominent group says President Donald Trump and other party leaders will be to blame for ignoring how an anti-abortion message could have aided Republicans.
“The power of the issue has not been prevailed upon by the party in general,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told The Washington Sun, saying it was a failure at the top of the party. “It could prove deadly for our prospects.”
Activists have been raising concerns for months about the administration’s inaction on abortion restrictions — and those calls increased after The Sun reported that the White House was directing the Justice Department not to act on abortion — including not to act on abortion-related cases — until after the midterms. Republicans’ campaign season has instead been defined by attempts to minimize political fallout from the Iran war, high gas prices and dissatisfaction with how the first two years of Trump’s second term have unfolded.
“The Trump Administration is committed to Gold Standard Science, as outlined in detail by President Trump’s Executive Order, ‘Restoring Gold Standard Science,’” White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said in a statement to The Sun. “The mifepristone safety review by the FDA is just one example of President Trump’s total commitment to ensuring the health and safety of all Americans.”
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In outside ads and in Trump’s many red-state rallies, Republican candidates’ anti-abortion credentials have been left out of national messaging. Abortion opponents say the avoidance has sidelined a faction of single-issue voters.
While activists and faith groups have continued to focus on abortion restrictions as a motivator for the base and in local races and ballot measures, one Republican operative said the excitement about abortion access as a national issue only exists within Democratic circles.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm on the left,” said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe party dynamics. “But I don’t see anybody talking about this from the GOP’s point of view.”
Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, defended Trump’s record on abortion, referring to him as “the most pro-life and pro-family president in American history.”
“Whether it’s ending the Biden DOJ’s weaponization of the FACE Act against peaceful protestors, expanding the child tax credit, creating Trump accounts, or making it easier to buy a home, there’s never been a president who cares more about our nation’s children and working families,” Baldassarre said in a statement to The Sun.
Conservatives worry that the de-emphasis on abortion will dampen turnout among evangelical voters. Dannenfelser said the effect could be more widespread, extending beyond evangelicals and into a larger bucket of voters who oppose abortion, including socially conservative Catholics who have become reliable Republican allies.
“The intensity killer is when there’s confusion or there’s a lack of leadership generally, and so it’s discouraging if it’s a qualifier for you,” Dannenfelser said. “It could be high impact in terms of voter intensity and a dearth of voters that are needed at the polls.”
In lieu of help from the outside groups central to the money boosting Republican candidates, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and other organizations have done their own outreach. SBA and its super PAC, Women Speak Out PAC, said they had logged roughly 3.34 million door-to-door voter visits from 2,315 canvassers as of last week. The group’s outreach also included over 19 million text messages and mailers.
Dannenfelser said SBA has done its part. If Republicans lose big on Tuesday, she predicted that those who cast aside abortion as a priority issue will be to blame.
“It really is a measurable difference that Democrats have figured is there,” she said. “They’re going to take advantage of it when they see it in battlegrounds, and we have to make up for it in all these races. So the question is whether we’ll be able to do it or not.”
Democrats have taken notice. As many Republican candidates have gone quiet about their positions on abortion, Democratic candidates in competitive states are spending the home stretch keen to discuss their opponents’ records on abortion.
“We know that they are worried about this issue and MAGA is scared,” Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, told reporters Thursday. “Republicans can see the writing on the wall.”
Polling conducted by RFA over the summer identified abortion as a swing issue. Poll participants didn’t prioritize it over affordability, but the group argues opposition to abortion can be a disqualifier in races where candidates share similar, populist economic messages.
“That’s why you’re seeing, here in the last three weeks, these Democratic candidates in these key congressional districts just running really hard on abortion,” said Alejandro Garcia, an RFA spokesperson.
In tight races, particularly in traditional swing districts and states, Democratic candidates have been loath to allow Republicans to distance themselves from the party’s traditional anti-abortion stance. Ads and mailers in Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire, among others, seek to tie Republican candidates to anti-abortion records.
RFA is spending $200,000 in digital ads to support Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s Senate seat, that they say will highlight Republican nominee Mike Rogers’ anti-abortion stances.
“In many of our competitive districts across the country, the issue of reproductive health has been a defining contrast,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm. She said Democratic candidates are being vocal about preserving access to abortion “while Republicans are scrambling to hide their extreme views on the issue.”
Some anti-abortion activists say that conservative voters focused on policies that restrict abortion access won’t be tempted to stay home because local candidates have campaigned on the issue, even if it has been absent from the national conversation.
Suzi Voyles, an activist based in Georgia, said the state’s Republican candidates have distinguished themselves as anti-abortion.
“Everybody running here in Georgia, who is running as a Republican, is very pro-life,” Voyles said. “They have been very clear.”
Should Republicans prevail on Tuesday, Dannenfelser said, it would be an “unbelievable success story” against the political current. If they don’t, she said, the party needs to take it as a lesson.
“You better not leave your base behind,” she said. “It’s the fundamental political law of the land.”
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