The reaction of anti-abortion organizations to recent blows to the movement has been mild in comparison to sharp criticism from the grassroots.
After a series of losses following the overturning of Roe v. Wade abortion protections in 2022, Republicans vying for larger victories in the presidential and Senate elections have taken steps to walk back their historical support for the most aggressive positions from the anti-abortion movement.
The 2024 GOP platform , significantly shaped by former President Donald Trump, removed long-standing language regarding support for a nationwide abortion ban and replaced it with a tip of the hat to the 14th Amendment’s protection of due process.
Other policies that recognized life beginning at conception, such as restrictions for embryonic stem cell research, were also omitted in the platform in exchange for affirmation of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and contraception access. IVF has become a flashpoint in the post-Roe abortion debates, dividing Republicans in the lead-up to the 2024 election largely because of embryo destruction common in the process.
VP candidates flip-flop on abortion
Within days of releasing the party platform, Sens. JD Vance (R-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), both well known for staunch support for abortion restrictions, took more liberal approaches to their respective positions on abortion in what appears to be attempts to win over the party leader for a spot on the presidential ticket.
During their respective 2022 reelection campaigns, Rubio and Vance supported federal abortion restrictions in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Rubio also has a strong record as a champion for pro-family policies, such as the federal child tax credit, which are often viewed by activists as the next step in the anti-abortion movement in the post-Roe era.
This week, however, both Vance and Rubio voiced support for the Supreme Court’s recent decision not to immediately overturn access to the abortion pill mifepristone, and both supported abortion policy being decided by state-level voters.
Criticism from talking heads in the conservative movement has been scathing, saying Vance and Rubio are compromising their core values to cater to Trump.
Scant criticism of VP candidates from anti-abortion groups
Several prominent anti-abortion organizations, including Live Action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and Priests for Life, did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the apparent retrenchment from Vance and Rubio.
The president of the anti-abortion organization Catholic Vote, Bryan Burch, told the Washington Examiner that “there are better ways to articulate the political realities” of regulating mifepristone that do not signal complete support for access to the drug but didn’t condemn the senators outright.
“It's unfortunate that it came across as they're now endorsing those drugs,” Burch said. “I think what they're effectively doing is saying they recognize the political challenge of regulating these drugs near-term.”
But Burch also defended both Vance and Rubio, noting that they were guests on left-wing outlets like MSNBC and CNN.
“CNN doesn't get to determine the terms of the debate,” Burch said. “Marco Rubio and JD Vance don't owe CNN a full answer on exactly what they're thinking.”
Pragmatism rules the day — but disappoints
“I think the platform language is essentially a more realist platform, rather than an aspirational platform, which it disappoints some people, including me,” Burch told the Washington Examiner.
But Burch added that Trump is “exceptionally pragmatic” and that’s the natural direction for the party with him at the helm.
The president of SBA List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, highlighted in a press release that the platform does recognize personhood status for unborn children, but more strongly emphasized the need to win the White House.
“The mission of the pro-life movement, for the next four months, must be to defeat the Biden-Harris extreme abortion agenda,” Dannenfelser said. “The platform allows us to provide the winning message to 10 million voters, with four million visits at the door in key battleground states.”
Lila Rose, the president of the more hard-line group Live Action, offered the harshest criticism of the platform, saying the watered-down language in the 2024 platform and Trump’s state-rights positions on abortion “are alienating some of his most passionate supporters and will win exactly zero fence sitters.”
Values over party
With respect to criticism from religious conservatives that neither party represents their values, Burch said that partisan identification matters much less than it did in elections past.
“Our faith teaches that no political party fully embodies the entirety of what we believe, and the politicians that make up those parties certainly don't embody that,” Burch said of Catholicism and other Christian denominations in particular.
Burch added that voters should assess “each individual candidate on their own in the context of a particular election,” but, in that calculus, life issues ought to still be preeminent.
O. Carter Snead, a Notre Dame law school professor and prominent bioethicist, told the Washington Examiner that “apparent retreat” on life-based issues is “disappointing.”
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To best mitigate any damage, Snead said, politicians looking to balance electability with anti-abortion views should counter “widespread misinformation about the post-Dobbs landscape” and highlight the extreme views of Democrats on the other side.
“Pro-life politicians who believe that the regulation of abortion should be strictly left to the states should reaffirm their commitment to no federal taxpayer funding of abortion and enforceable conscience protections for healthcare providers,” Snead also said.
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