Republicans ramp up defensive strategy on abortion after midterm struggles

Republicans are kicking their defensive messaging on abortion into high gear, aiming to blunt Democrats’ attempts to paint them as extreme in the run-up to the election.

In debates, GOP congressional candidates are taking a more aggressive approach when talking about the issue, accusing Democrats of misrepresenting their position. Republican campaigns are successfully pitching fact-checks to local media that pick apart the claims of Democratic campaigns, and candidates are going on air with ads to directly articulate their stances on abortion.

In an unusually graphic example of that aggressiveness on Monday, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) took advantage of a Zoom debate format to push back on his Democratic challenger, John Avalon — much to the dismay of the moderators. As Avalon referenced LaLota’s stated opposition to second and third trimester abortion, LaLota held up a printed piece of paper that said: “I OPPOSE A NATIONAL ABORTION BAN.”

The tactics mark a shift from the last election cycle in 2022, when many Republicans — caught off-guard by the Supreme Court overturning the federal right to abortion that year — largely aimed to pivot their message to other issues like the economy and immigration that ranked as higher concerns in polls.

The GOP underperformed expectations, and the abortion issue was widely credited with breaking an anticipated “red wave.”

Democrats are again heavily campaigning on abortion access this year, with candidates in battleground seats across the country going on offense against the GOP on the issue.

But this year, Republican strategists advised candidates to articulate their position on abortion early — and to use those articulated positions to combat Democratic messaging.

CBS News Colorado, for instance, fact-checked an ad from Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s (D-Colo.) campaign that aimed to link her Republican challenger, Gabe Evans, to hard-line conservative Republicans such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.).

“He only cares about that Boebert stuff,” a man identified as an unaffiliated voter says in the ad, like “banning abortion.”

Democrats have pointed to a questionnaire Evans filled out in 2022 in which he ticked a box saying he supported prohibiting abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother. But the CBS News Colorado political correspondent said that statement was misleading, pointing to the issues page on Evans’s website with a lengthy statement on abortion in which he said, “I will not vote for a national abortion ban.”

Democrats argue Republicans are simply hiding their previous positions or records. And while a number of Republicans say they wouldn’t support a national abortion ban, Democrats — pointing to strict state-level bans that have gone into effect — are pitching legislation that would codify the protections in Roe v. Wade.

“House Republicans are desperately trying to cover up their anti-abortion records because they know they are on the wrong side of the issue,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton said in a statement. “No matter how hard they try, the fact remains: they’ve all cheered the fall of Roe and said they want to take away reproductive freedom. The public sees through their deception and will reject their anti-abortion extremism on Election Day.”

Caraveo’s campaign manager, Mary Alice Blackstock, said in a statement that Evans is “trying to side sweep his past” now that he is running for Congress.

“From opposing the Colorado Reproductive Health Equity Act to celebrating the Dobbs decision, Gabe Evans is far too extreme for this district. Voters deserve a representative who will fight to protect their rights, not strip them away,” Blackstock added. 

But the fact-check, which the Evans campaign pitched to local media, demonstrates how Republicans are seeing some success in being more aggressive. Similar fact-checks have popped up in other close races across the country as Republicans, rather than pivoting to other issues, put the focus on pushing back on Democrats.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the campaign arm for House Republicans, conducted a major research project last year with focus groups and battleground polling to understand how abortion was affecting campaigns. 

Its conclusion for candidates in competitive districts was clear: “You should speak out about what your position is, because Democrats will brand you with a false position if you don’t,” an NRCC official told The Hill.

The pushback has also been evidenced by Republicans getting more aggressive in articulating their positions on the debate stage in several races.

During a debate in Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s (R-Ariz.) race, Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel dinged his vote in the House Appropriations Committee in favor of a bill that would prohibit mail delivery of pills used for abortions. The bill never got a vote on the House floor amid intraparty disputes in the GOP.

“Taking that away really hurts our women in our rural areas,” Engel said, going on to ding Ciscomani for serving on the board of an organization linked to supporting life at conception.

Ciscomani pushed back, accusing Engel of misrepresenting his position and “completely grasping for straws,” reiterating that he does not support a federal abortion ban, supports exceptions and supports in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The crux of many attacks from Democrats appears to be Republican members’ previous sponsorships of the Life at Conception Act, which would “implement equal protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.” The short bill was introduced in multiple years and was widely seen as a messaging bill that never had any shot of becoming law.

The legislation says it “shall not be construed to authorize the prosecution of any woman for the death of her unborn child,” but it is widely understood to be a measure that would outlaw abortion, and it does not articulate exceptions.

Nebraska state Sen. Tony Vargas, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), brought up that bill in a debate between the candidates — saying it had “no carve-outs” for IVF or “if a 10-year-old was raped.”

Bacon co-sponsored the bill previously but did not co-sponsor the most recent version introduced in 2023. And in the debate, he pushed back on Vargas.

“You need to read the bill. It doesn’t talk about abortion at all,” Bacon said in the debate, adding he has articulated support for abortion exceptions elsewhere.

The bill is also a factor in an Iowa race. The campaign for Democrat Christina Bohannan, who is challenging Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), ran one ad in which a woman claimed that Meeks would “ban all abortions nationwide, no exceptions.”

One local fact-check on the ad from WQUAD found the overall ad to be false. It did mention Miller-Meeks’s previous support for the Life at Conception Act in 2021 — which she did not support in 2023. But it also said “her voting record also reflects support for exceptions for rape and incest.”

But in a reflection of how previous stances are causing difficulty for Republicans, another fact-check on the same ad from another local outlet, KCRG, simply said that Miller-Meeks did co-sponsor the Life at Conception bill.

In a statement to The Hill, Bohannan reiterated the allegation in the ad, saying Miller-Meeks “supported a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the woman’s life. Now, she’s trying to rewrite history because she knows her anti-abortion record is out of step with Iowans.”

Miller-Meeks herself responded by going on air with an ad directly articulating her support for exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother and supporting access to contraception.

That direct-to-camera approach is exactly what voters want to see from candidates on that issue, according to Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

Chamberlain said her organization found through focus groups after the underwhelming 2022 midterms that voters want to hear directly from candidates on their stances on abortion.

“They want the candidates going directly to camera, talking with them,” Chamberlain said.

But both Chamberlain and the NRCC said that while they can provide advice on how to articulate their messages, it is up to the Republican candidates themselves to decide how they feel policy-wise on abortion — and what they support.