Former President Trump is giving moderate Republican lawmakers some breathing room on the explosive issue of abortion, treading unusually cautiously on an issue that Democrats are trying to create a political liability for swing-district Republicans.
During a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers last week, Trump urged Republicans to talk about abortion in a way that made sense for their districts, saying they should discuss the issue “properly,” according to a source present at the conference. living room. The former president defended the issue as a matter of state rights, supported exceptions for certain circumstances and called the party’s position on the issue “common sense”.
The message is in line with Trump’s comments on abortion earlier this year, when he declared that the fate of abortion should be left up to each state, refused to take a position on a possible federal abortion ban and said that supports exceptions for cases involving rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger.
Trump’s advice last week gives Republicans running in districts that President Biden won in 2020 — where Trump’s style often doesn’t do them any favors — the green light to campaign on the issue in a way that better meets their needs. their voters.
“It’s very helpful,” a Republican from Biden’s district said to the Hill of Trump’s message on abortion. “And it’s probably the most disciplined he’s ever been on any subject.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) — whose district swung to Biden by about 6 percentage points in 2020 — echoed that sentiment, calling Trump’s message “smart advice.”
“I believe what President Trump is saying is reality, and I think that will probably be helpful in the debates that will take place in November,” he added in an interview with The Hill.
Trump’s political coverage is a shift from the typical dynamic that moderate and swing-state Republicans have with the former president. They often spend time trying to distinguish themselves from Trump’s vindictive style and bombastic stances, while Democrats work hard to link them to the former president.
Trump’s positions on abortion have changed repeatedly over the years, from defending abortion rights decades ago to signing a letter in 2016 saying he would enact a 20-week abortion ban. Now, he’s taking a stance that minimizes political risk — and advocating that others do the same.
“There was a very serious discussion about how Republicans are going to talk about abortion in the upcoming election,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) told reporters after the meeting. “President Trump has reiterated his perspective that this is a state issue. He thought this would give members who have different opinions on this issue in our conference the ability to really localize it, rather than having to talk about it in the broadest national terms.”
Abortion has become a major political challenge for Republicans since the Supreme Court eliminated the federal right to obtain early abortions with the Dobbs v. Board of Education decision. Jackson Women’s Health two years ago, resulting in new abortion bans in GOP-controlled states across the country.
Outrage over the decision – and the bans that followed – resulted in a wave of enthusiasm from voters on the Democratic side. Abortion, as an issue, has been widely credited as a driving factor in Republican losses and poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump alluded to those defeats during his meeting with House Republicans, saying it was too important an issue to ignore. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Trump told the assembled lawmakers that abortion “cost us.”
Now, some GOP lawmakers are urging Republicans to recalibrate their messaging on the issue.
“The country needs to hear that Republicans support life and support women,” Mace told reporters last week.
“It’s not just a purple district issue,” she later added. “It’s an issue everywhere that people support a common sense, common sense approach to abortion.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who is on the more hard-line conservative side of the Republican Party, said Trump is not concerned about the intricacies of abortion-related policies, such as access to medications that help induce abortions. .
“He’s not going into detail and he said we shouldn’t either,” Norman said.
Democrats are attacking Republicans on the issue of abortion. Just this month, Senate Democratic leaders held votes on protecting in vitro fertilization and contraception, forcing Republicans to officially declare a blockade on the bills. Republicans say the measures were too broad and contained “poison pill” provisions.
“The majority of House Republicans have endorsed a nationwide abortion ban, with zero exceptions. And now Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that would protect IVF nationwide,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. wrote on social platform. “They are determined to take away our reproductive freedoms. We can’t leave them.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are taking a more hands-off approach to abortion policies, both in federal legislation and in campaign messaging. Earlier this month, the House GOP released a funding bill that did not include a provision to overturn a Biden administration rule that allowed mifepristone to be sold in retail pharmacies and distributed through the mail — a political additive that caused intra-party divisions last year. The National Defense Authorization Act, however, passed with an amendment attached that would block a Biden administration policy of reimbursing military personnel for travel expenses incurred to obtain an abortion.
Bacon said Trump’s comments on abortion reflect the “reality” of the situation: that Republicans will only be able to enact significant changes on abortion at the state level due to a 60-vote filibuster in the Senate.
“You’re not going to be able to do anything, very little, at the federal level with the obstruction that exists, and that’s just the reality,” he said. “Very few people said that. And so the president is, I think, very smart and shows that this is true.”
“For the most part, it’s not a federal issue because it’s very difficult to do anything at the federal level,” he continued. “So it’s really a state issue.”
In a sense, Trump’s stance on abortion and his Republican embrace show the Republican Party backtracking on its anti-abortion stance to win the election. After years of campaigning to overturn Roe, few are calling for federal bans, despite previous Republican-controlled Houses passing 20-week abortion bans three times in recent years.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, argued that Trump’s position and advice to Republican members do not conflict with the party’s core anti-abortion position.
“We haven’t sacrificed any fundamental principles,” Johnson said. “We all believe in the sanctity of human life. And everyone has to go to their district and explain it in their own way. And President Trump has encouraged everyone to do so.”
Johnson made a similar argument to Bacon, talking about Trump’s position in terms of political practicalities rather than principles.
“Before we can have political consensus on what has been a difficult issue, we have this cultural consensus,” Johnson said. “And right now, we just don’t have the numbers in Congress to do anything at the federal level.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
