House Republicans jeopardized passage of their annual defense bill on Thursday when they voted to tack on a rollback of the Pentagon’s new policy on abortion.
But Democrats see a greater liability for the GOP when its members fight for reelection next year in dozens of swing districts.
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Republicans are opposed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to pay for the travel and leave of service women seeking abortions on the grounds that it, in their eyes, runs afoul of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayer funding for most abortions. They voted almost uniformly to repeal it as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
To Democrats, however, the vote was just another attack by Republicans on abortion rights. The party made this argument to good effect in last year’s midterm elections, which were overshadowed by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Red states have implemented a bevy of restrictions on the procedure, prompting Democrats to warn that conservatives want to ban abortion at the federal level. Some GOP candidates for president have pledged to do just that.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, are split on whether abortion should be regulated by Congress.
That has not stopped Democrats from attempting to define the party by its views on abortion. No sooner had the House voted to repeal the Pentagon policy than Democrats began signaling it would be used as a cudgel against blue-district Republicans next year.
“Republicans are so hell-bent on enacting their extreme agenda, including a nationwide abortion ban, that they’re willing to hijack an historically bipartisan bill that authorizes essential national defense programs and pay raises to the brave men and women that protect our country,” Courtney Rice, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Shame on them.”
The repeal was just one of several amendments Democrats consider to be “poison pills” — the House also voted to ban the military from covering certain medical procedures for transgender service members.
The culture war amendments were necessary for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who can only afford to lose four votes in a chamber Republicans narrowly control, to appease the hard-line conservatives in his conference.
But the votes mean Republicans will have to get the NDAA through the House without the help of their Democratic colleagues.
Democrats hope McCarthy’s efforts to unite his majority could lose him the House next year. The party is already campaigning on the message that House Republicans are beholden to the “extreme MAGA” wing of the conference. Thursday’s abortion vote will give them one more line of attack as the 2024 cycle gets underway in earnest.
Vulnerable Republicans are well aware the vote will be used against them — two of them, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and John Duarte (CA), voted against repeal.
Nonetheless, most swing district Republicans backed the measure on Thursday. “I believe it’s a Hyde Amendment violation,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), whose district voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.
Even Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), a centrist Republican who has urged her party not to focus so heavily on abortion, voted for repeal.
The congresswoman, who argued the Pentagon was not being consistent on which procedures it chooses to reimburse, dismissed the vote as inconsequential.
“It’s not going to pass the Senate anyway. It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I mean, it’s not getting through in the final NDAA.”
It could have electoral implications come next year, however. Republicans were expected to sweep into the majority in 2022, buoyed by persistent inflation and a crime wave that plagued Democrats.
But Democrats spent well over $100 million on advertising focused squarely on abortion rights. The gambit paid off — Republicans retook the House but barely, and they lost a seat in the Senate.
Roe was not the only reason Democrats outperformed expectations, but its potency as a campaign issue has the party convinced it will work in their favor for another election cycle.
They see purple districts in California and New York, in particular, as opportunities to flip the lower chamber.
GOP strategist John Feehery doubts the issue will be as salient this cycle, citing the Food and Drug Administration’s Thursday decision to make birth control available over the counter.
“I can’t imagine that this issue will have the same resonance that it did in the last election,” he told the Washington Examiner.
The Republicans who represent swing districts are, at least publicly, skeptical the playbook will work as well. Many have staked out less orthodox positions on the issue.
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“They tried that in 2022, and my opponent spent $3.1 million trying to paint me as that when that’s not the case,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), who represents a swing district on Long Island, told Politico. “I do believe in exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. And I do not oppose abortion in the first trimester.”
“We won by 11 points, so if they want to light that money on fire in 2024 again, that’s their decision,” he added.
