At the first rally of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign at a university in northern Virginia this month, the words “Restore Roe” hung in the background in bold, radiant lettering. Biden, with his skin freshly tightened around the eyes and his teeth freshly nuked to a dazzling white, lurched over his podium and asked the audience with choleric enthusiasm, “Are you ready to defend your freedom?” The racially diverse crush of female Democrats standing behind the president waved their pro-choice placards and hooted and scowled in response.
The decision to capitalize on the anger of Democratic women by running on the restoration of Roe v. Wade makes too much sense — so much, in fact, that it’s hard to believe Biden’s team is behind it. (Where, for instance, was such competence during the Afghanistan withdrawal?)
The Democratic Party has seen its political fortunes improve dramatically since Roe was overturned in the summer of 2022. Voter intensity over the issue helped Democrats reduce the mythical red wave of the 2022 midterm elections to a measly trickle — it ranked as the most important issue for 76% of Democratic voters during 2022, according to exit polling. Since then, pro-abortion state ballot initiatives have passed handily in both red and blue states. And polling indicates no signs of pro-choice passions abating.
For an octogenarian president with historically low approval ratings heading into his reelection, the issue is nothing short of political lifeblood. Indeed, it is the only remaining national topic on which Biden has a clear advantage. A new NBC poll released on Sunday shows former President Donald Trump outperforming Biden on just about everything else, from the economy to immigration, where Biden trails Trump by a staggering 35%. Perhaps just as shockingly, the poll found Trump and Biden tied at 43% on the issue of “protecting democracy” despite Biden’s yearslong insistence that Trump poses a unique threat to democracy. With each passing month, the Biden campaign seems to find itself with fewer “aces” to play.
But as luck would have it for Team Biden, the Republican Party has proven itself uniquely incapable of maneuvering on the issue of abortion. Since the GOP primary began many months ago (it feels like years), Republican candidates have managed to demonstrate neither a virtuous commitment to an unpopular position nor the political dexterity necessary to lead a diverse coalition. Instead, the internal debate about the proper week limit for a national abortion ban has managed to make the GOP appear both intellectually dishonest and heavy-handed. After all, if a pre-born human life has inherent value, what difference is there between a 6-week-old and a 15-week-old fetus?
And how do Republicans square the sudden obsession with a national ban with all those years spent working to return the subject to the states? Wasn’t the point of overturning Roe that voters would be able to have their say on the state level?
The confusion and dissonance caused by the GOP’s inability to lead on the matter has allowed the Democratic Party to define the terms of the debate and paint the national abortion landscape as something out of The Handmaid’s Tale — despite the fact that Roe’s downfall appears to have been a net-positive for the practice of abortion in America, not to mention a lifeline for a failing political party.
And as for new ideas, let’s just say the GOP hasn’t developed any in the post-Roe era. The new voter climate begs for a greater emphasis on the economic security of single, pregnant women. It begs for a challenge to long-established cultural norms that disincentivize birth at every turn, from the exorbitant cost of childbirth itself to the excessive paperwork involved in receiving financial assistance. It is an appalling truth that contraceptives and abortion procedures are covered by most health insurance plans but not the cost of childbirth. Such a system provides no real “choice” to begin with.
There are real conservative solutions to abortion that have nothing to do with “bans.” And yet, in the modern Republican Party, they never see the light of day.
Until they do, the GOP can count itself unprepared for the “Restore Roe” election. And you can be sure the Democrats will take full advantage.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, and the National Catholic Register.
