Abortion has haunted Republicans since the fall of 2011 Roe v. Wade.
But the issue could not stop former President Donald Trump, who overcame a major gender divide on Tuesday — and Democrats’ relentless focus on women’s reproductive health — from winning back the White House.
With a message discipline that often eluded other parts of his campaign, Trump and his allies positioned themselves as moderates on abortion, arguing that the issue should be left to the states, vowing to veto a national abortion ban if it reached his desk, pitched government support for in vitro fertilization and other reproductive health care services, and promised to be a champion for women. These attempts to neutralize an issue that has dogged Republicans ever since RooTrump’s downfall in 2022 helped Trump secure a clear victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, with the electorate angry over the economy, inflation and immigration set to punish the party in power.
Vice President-elect JD Vance, who himself backed down after years of supporting federal abortion restrictions, has also worked to quell widespread outrage over the fall of the US. Roo by promising to maintain federal access to abortion pills and funding more generous social programs for new parents. Trump allies even appealed to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in a nearly $20 million ad blitz just before Election Day, arguing that Republicans agreed with her views on abortion. But above all, Republicans largely avoided the issue and focused on more politically favorable terrain, including the economy, crime, immigration and transgender rights.
“Donald Trump has been very, very clear in saying that this is a states’ rights issue and we are not going to get involved at the federal level,” Pete Hoekstra, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said in a statement. September to POLITICO. “The bottom line is that when we debate the abortion issue, we debate the issue that Democrats want to talk about, and when we debate the economy, when we debate the border, jobs, and things like that, we think that we debate the issues that matter most to voters today.”
Democrats were betting that abortion would remain as strong a motivator as it has been in races across the country since Dobbs. But other issues, including the economy, proved more important to many voters.
CNN’s national exit poll found that abortion was the most important issue for only 14 percent of voters, behind democracy at 34 percent and the economy at 31 percent. That exit poll also underscored the political pragmatism of the Republican Party’s efforts to appear moderate on abortion: 28 percent of people who believe abortion should be legal voted for Trump.
“The post-Dobbs There was no such thing as Dem overachievement. Or at least was swamped by other factors that favored Trump,” Tom Bonier, senior advisor at the Democratic data firm TargetSmart, said of X. “Trump was clearly not seen by enough voters as a threat to abortion rights, which is astonishing. .”
With control of Congress at stake, a national abortion ban is not out of the question – although Trump campaigned on promises to veto such a bill. But there are numerous ways his government and the judges he appoints can restrict access to the proceedings without passing legislation.
Conservative allies of the president-elect at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and other groups have urged him to direct the FDA to reimpose pre-pandemic restrictions on online prescribing of mail-in delivery of abortion pills, or revoke their FDA approval to draw — outcomes that judges could also secure as several lawsuits over the pills make their way to federal courts. The moves would block nationwide access to drugs responsible for more than two-thirds of abortions in the U.S., including in states with laws protecting the procedure.
Opponents of abortion have also called on his administration to enforce the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that bans the shipment of “indecent” items, including drugs or instruments used for abortions. Trump said in August that he had no plans to enforce the Comstock Act.
However, Trump is expected to reinstate many of the anti-abortion policies of his first administration, including restrictions on the Title X family planning program and global HIV programs.
“Now the work begins to dismantle the Biden-Harris administration’s pro-abortion policies,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said Wednesday. “President Trump’s pro-life achievements in his first term set the stage for his second term.”
Most anti-abortion groups supported Trump throughout the campaign, even as he repeatedly broke with them on federal abortion restrictions, rape and incest exemptions and other policies, deposed them on the party platform and welcomed into his inner circle people of mixed race. background. liberal record on abortion. SBA Pro-Life America has poured tens of millions of dollars into boosting Trump and Republicans, despite previously saying his rejection of a national ban could be disqualifying.
But some in the movement fear Trump’s success will convince other Republicans to run for abortion moderator positions.
“It will certainly be opportunistic Republican consultants who will try to take advantage of that and say, ‘Look, we need to drop the abortion talk,’” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “The party must realize that this is not the way of the future.”
Still, Hawkins and her allies argue that his victory would be worth these setbacks if he appoints hardline anti-abortion officials to key positions at HHS, FDA and the Justice Department, whom they can rely on to carry out their agenda.
During her campaign, Harris has spotlighted women who suffered serious health complications — and some who died — after being denied abortions, repeatedly reminding voters that the chaos was the result of “Trump abortion bans,” her nickname for the state laws that came into effect after the fall of Roo.
In the final weeks of the election — when polls showed a virtual tie — Harris held anti-abortion rallies in Atlanta and Houston, sent former first lady Michelle Obama to Michigan and took to the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy” to discuss the fallout from the election. Highlighting GOP policies and warning of national restrictions if Trump comes to power.
It wasn’t enough.
Michigan Democrats warned in the latter part of the campaign that they were struggling to convince voters that abortion remained under threat after the state passed a ballot initiative protecting access to the procedure in 2022. And even in other battleground states like Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona where abortion restrictions remain in place. The Democrats’ message was overwhelmed.
While Arizona has yet to be called, Democratic strategists in the state attribute their projected loss in part to the Republican-controlled Legislature. Earlier this year, the country repealed a near-complete civil war-era abortion ban and introduced a law banning the procedure after 15 weeks. Democrats said it became harder to convince voters that access to abortion was in danger.
“I’m more concerned about economic problems than things that are already covered by state rights,” Yusuf Isaak, a 19-year-old student at a community college in Mesa, said outside a polling place Tuesday afternoon. “I feel like the economic problems are more urgent because they actually affect everyone’s daily lives.”
Edna Meza Aguirre, a board member of Tucson-based Planned Parenthood of Arizona, said in the run-up to the election that despite her and other volunteers’ efforts to draw voters’ attention to abortion rights, many in her community supported Republicans because of immigration problems.
“They listen to what conservatives say about individuals crossing the border, taking our jobs and raping our women, and they also complain that they are a burden on society,” she said. “It’s a very effective way in which they decided that hate should be a problem.” Too many other voters, she added, planned to sit out the election. “We hear people say they are too discouraged to vote, or we hear them say voting doesn’t matter if it does.”
The Democrats’ abortion rights playbook also failed in New Hampshire, which the party had seen as its best chance to flip a governor’s seat this year. Democratic candidate Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, had made expanding abortion access the centerpiece of her campaign — and her main line of attack against her Republican rival, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte. But Ayotte countered in ads vowing to enforce New Hampshire’s law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and in limited cases beyond, and protect access to in vitro fertilization.
And while Democrats had insisted that abortion voting initiatives in Arizona and other swing states would boost turnout and give their candidates an edge, the measures had limited impact even if passed overwhelmingly — and may even have helped the Republicans by giving voters an ‘edge’. release valve” for their feelings on the matter. In many states, including Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Montana, a majority of voters supported both abortion rights ballot measures and anti-abortion Republican candidates, including Trump.
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
