Come Nov. 3, voters will head to the polls for the midterm elections. Republicans are anxious. President Donald Trump is polling poorly, and Democrats sense they can end the GOP’s majority in Congress. With so much at stake, then, there is little GOP interest in risky policy campaigns. This reticence is especially apparent on the abortion issue.
Democrats are still fuming over the June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which saw the Supreme Court overturn the Roe and Casey decisions. The Dobbs decision has transformed abortion laws across the United States. Despite claims from the Left, however, abortion has not gone away. Medication abortions have quickly become a preferred method, especially for those living in more restrictive states. But while the Left wonders what the future holds for abortion, Republicans seem eager to tiptoe around the problem entirely.
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Some of this is unsurprising.
The idea that Trump is the most anti-abortion president of our time is a false one. Trump was in the right place at the right time, he listened to wise counsel, and he nominated Supreme Court justices who understood the law. The president should be commended for that. But to suggest he has set an anti-abortion standard is to ignore his actions since Dobbs.
In response to the 2022 midterm results, for example, Trump said, “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the Midterms. It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans.” Trump was referring to post-Dobbs state-level legislation, which he found too restrictive. Before the 2024 election, Trump said, “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” Early in his second term, the Trump administration tried to encourage more in vitro fertilization as if it were somehow anti-abortion. It is not. When Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a new anti-abortion group called the “Love Life Initiative,” the administration reacted with disgust at its impact on the midterm elections.
Ultimately, then, it appears as though the Dobbs decision was a placeholder to appease the anti-abortion Right. To be sure, overturning Roe and Casey was a monumental step in the right direction. But that success must be followed by legislation that advances the cause. It also requires a GOP that doesn’t shy away from the abortion issue, regardless of elections. Republicans, who claim to be the “party of life,” certainly can’t cozy up to ideas such as promoting IVF. It creates the semblance of being anti-abortion while ignoring how the process involves the destruction of embryos, of life.
This week, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) confronted a pro-choice advocate with the horrors of abortion. He described in detail what abortion does to an unborn human being. We need more such bold honesty. It bothers the Left because it exposes the truth of what they support.
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And it matters.
Protecting life in the womb remains a core tenet of conservatism.
