Republicans Are Downplaying Abortion, but It Keeps Coming Up – KFF Health News

For generations, the Republican Party has campaigned to eliminate the right to abortion in the United States. Now, caught between a base that wants more restrictions on reproductive health care and a liberal majority that doesn’t, it seems many Republicans would prefer to take an off-ramp rather than a victory lap.

And yet, they can’t avoid talking about it.

The policy high point for abortion opponents is the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to repeal Roe vs. Wade — public support for their cause is proving to be lacking. According to one study, more American adults consider themselves “pro-choice” than at any time in the last 30 years. The latest Gallup poll: 54%, while 41% identify as “pro-life”.

The situation is also changing as some conservatives seek to ban birth control and fertility treatments. A new KFF survey Among women voters, 10 percent found that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say abortion is the most important issue in their vote for president — a reversal from recent polls. One in five women under 30 and 13% of women under 50 said it was their biggest concern. Among independent voters, 81% said they believe abortion should be legal.

Democrats are counting on the issue to boost their vote share and ensure President Joe Biden’s re-election, despite persistent discontent with his leadership. Abortion could prove particularly disruptive in battleground states, where abortion is likely to be voted for. Ballot initiatives to ensure access State constitutions, including Arizona and Nevada, provide for abortion.

KFF found that eight in 10 Democratic women in likely voting states said they were “very confident” they would vote — and they also said they were more likely to support Biden than Democratic women in other states.

So far, abortion rights supporters have won in each of the seven states that have put ballot initiatives before voters — including states where Republicans control legislatures, such as Kansas, Ohio, and Kentucky. Nearly two-thirds of women in Arizona told KFF they support the state’s proposed abortion rights initiative, including 68% of independent women.

Republicans are trying to avoid this topic during the election campaign, even if it means distancing themselves from it – Well, myselfFormer President Donald Trump, who some different approach Since calling itself “pro-choice” in 1999, Allegedly urged MPs During a recent closed-door tour of the Capitol, he vowed not to shy away from the issue but to support exceptions to the restrictions, including to protect the lives of pregnant women.

In crucial Arizona, U.S. Senate Republican candidate Cary Lake, who embraced a near-total abortion ban when he ran for governor two years ago, Recently said “A total ban on abortion is not the people’s choice.” In Nevada, GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown, who until recently led a branch of a conservative anti-abortion group in 2022, has said he would respect his state’s permissive abortion law and would not vote for a nationwide ban if elected.

The Supreme Court is keeping the issue at the forefront. In a June 27 ruling, the court legalized emergency abortion in Idaho, a state where it is strictly prohibited, though the issue remains unresolved nationally. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who joined the majority in an unusual decision to send the case back to a lower court and declare it was prematurely admitted, accused her colleagues of dilly-dallying on the issue.

“Pregnant women facing an emergency medical situation are left in a precarious position because their doctors are kept in the dark about the law’s requirements,” they wrote.

The KFF survey found widespread, strong support for maintaining access to abortion in pregnancy-related emergencies: 86% of women voters — including 79% of Republican women — support laws protecting access in those circumstances.

In mid-June, the court rejected an effort to overturn the FDA’s 24-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, but only on a technicality. With no actual ruling on the merits of the case, the justices left open the possibility that different plaintiffs could provoke different outcomes. Nevertheless, the effort to redefine reproductive health care continues.Roe vs. Wade continues. The influential evangelical Southern Baptist Convention recently called for Important legislative restrictions on in vitro fertilizationWhich its members say is morally inconsistent with the belief that life begins at fertilization.

Anti-abortion groups are putting pressure on Trump There’s no denying the core issue that has driven GOP presidential picks since 1976: federal abortion restrictions. Trump has recently said states should decide for themselves whether to ban abortion.

Democrats and Democratic-allied groups are taking advantage of Republican discomfort over the issue. On the same day that Senate Democrats pushed for a vote on legislation guaranteeing a federal right to contraception, a group called Americans for Contraception introduced a resolution Giant balloon shaped like an IUD near the Capitol. (As expected, Republicans blocked the bill — and no doubt Democrats will remind voters of this repeatedly this year.)

A week later, Senate Democrats tried to raise an issue Bill to guarantee access to IVFWhich was also rejected by the Republicans. However, there is no big balloon for that.

Republicans still seem intent on avoiding accountability for the unpopularity of their reproductive health positions, even if they only do so by highlighting other issues they hope voters will care about even more — most notably, the economy. But one thing they can hardly do is keep the issue out of the news.

HealthBent, a regular feature on KFF Health News, provides information and analysis on policy and politics from KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner, who has covered health care for more than 30 years.