GOP grapples

House GOP grapples with abortion messaging after Alabama law

Republicans have gone mostly silent since Alabama passed a near total ban.

By LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ and MELANIE ZANONA

Republicans wanted to weaponize abortion against vulnerable Democrats in 2020, but a wave of strict bans across the country has upended their strategy, leaving them scattered and mostly mute.

Before Alabama passed its law, Republicans had made clear they would make abortion a central issue in the next election. They had homed in on a host of state laws expanding access to abortion, seizing specifically on a New York bill that Republicans inaccurately claimed would legalize “infanticide.”

The party hoped a relentless anti-abortion message coupled with attempts to tag Democrats as socialists could help them regain the House majority. This year alone, House Republicans have tried 50 times to force a vote on “born alive” legislation — which mandates medical care for babies who survive attempted abortions — in an attempt to corner Democrats in swing districts through procedural floor tactics. (Third-trimester abortions are extremely rare and a 2002 law guarantees babies born at any stage of development full legal rights.)

But Republicans have gone mostly quiet since Alabama’s governor signed a bill into law that all but bans abortion — even in cases of rape and incest — and punishes doctors who provide the procedure with up to 99 years to life behind bars.

Dozens of Republican offices contacted by POLITICO did not respond to questions on the abortion law, including all the House lawmakers in the Alabama delegation. Out of the 13 female Republicans in the House, only two responded to POLITICO’s request for comment on whether they support Alabama's bill. One directly answered whether they support the law and one member deflected to Democrats.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his two staunchly conservative top deputies are also split on Alabama’s law, reflecting a larger rift within the caucus that leaves Republicans exposed on a topic they wanted to dominate in 2020. The divide and muted response comes after similarly strict laws have passed in Georgia and Kentucky. And Missouri's last abortion clinic announced Monday it expects to close this week.

Some in the GOP fear that the Alabama law hands Democrats new ammunition to label the GOP as extreme and will turn off moderate and independent female voters who fled the party in 2018 while firing up the liberal base. Republican members have been urged by some in leadership to steer clear of the political firestorm by pivoting their responses to what they view as extreme abortion laws pushed by the opposing party.

Shortly after the Alabama bill passed, McCarthy, a California Republican who some anti-abortion advocates on the far right have long viewed suspiciously, sought to distance national Republicans from the law.

“It goes further than I believe, yes,” McCarthy told reporters days after the law passed. “I defend my pro-life position for my whole political career.” McCarthy added that he believes in exceptions for “rape, incest or life of the mother” and “that is what our platform says.”

A week later, he shifted, calling it a "personal position," adding that members "have to stake out their own personal position." President Donald Trump also distanced himself from Alabama, though his steady stream of conservative judge confirmations helped spur the wave of anti-abortion bills — designed by lawmakers and pro-life groups to force the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade.

By contrast, Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, went out of his way to put some daylight between himself and McCarthy. Scalise offered tacit support for the Alabama law, saying he supported an anti-abortion measure during his time in the Louisiana legislature that didn’t include exceptions for rape or incest.

“I voted for the bill that banned abortion except in the case of protecting life of the mothers,” said Scalise (R-La.), a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee. “That was the only exception.”

The mixed message comes at a time when Republicans are eager to use abortion against vulnerable freshman Democrats in competitive seats, seizing on controversial remarks made by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.), who was defending a bill in his state that makes it easier to get a third-trimester abortion when the health of the mother is at risk.

The conservative Republican Study Committee — the largest GOP caucus in the House — circulated talking points to its members about how they should defend the lack of exceptions for rape and incest in the Alabama law and other state bills, according to Vice News.

“Committing a second violent act with abortion to a woman who has already been victimized by an act of rape or incest could physically or psychologically wound her further,” the document states. “Every single child should be afforded the opportunity to live, regardless of how they were conceived.”

Democrats are already seizing on the memo, characterizing it as an “attack on women.”

“In a sea of offensive attacks on women, this is really something. Justifying the Alabama legislature's draconian, misogynist abortion ban by pretending you're doing it to protect rape victims is disgusting,” tweeted Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

“The @GOP has surrendered their party to a barbaric fringe who would criminalize abortion and punish women and doctors. They're on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of politics,” tweeted Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL pro-choice, a pro-abortion rights advocacy group.

And not every Republican Study Committee member is on the same page. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), whose office was the only one to provide an answer to questions about Alabama, does not support the state’s law, according to her spokesperson Rebecca Card.

“Because Alabama’s state law does not provide exemptions for rape and incest, [Brooks] believes it goes too far,” said Card, who added that Brooks is a “pro-life’ member. “She does not support RSC’s talking points backing Alabama’s law.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the highest ranking female Republican as head of the GOP’s messaging, dodged a question about the Alabama law. Her office provided a statement directing attention toward Democrats, calling them “the extreme party on the issue.”

“Support for partial-birth abortion, late-term abortion and infanticide are the litmus tests on which [Democrats] are building their party for 2020,” Cheney said in a statement provided to POLITICO. “Republicans in Congress and in state houses across the nation are taking steps to defend life and fight the barbaric positions the Democrats are advocating.”

Democrats do no support infanticide, which is illegal. The Illinois legislature voted Tuesday evening to repeal spousal consent requirements and the states partial-birth abortion ban, further fueling the national debate. A majority of Democrats say they support the federal law which does not allow partial-birth abortions – a political, not medical term, coined in the mid-90s.

Cheney isn’t the only member avoiding the question. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which recently criticized Rep. Cheri Bustos, head of Democrats’ campaign arm, for cancelling a fundraiser with pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski, also did not respond to a request for comment on Alabama’s law.

Others, when pressed for their position on Alabama, ducked questions and said they hadn’t read all the elements of the abortion law or said it wasn't a national issue.

"It's really a state by state issue," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), dismissing the question. "I'm not ready to go there yet."

“I need to vote,” Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) said when asked about the law last week. “I haven’t read up on all the provisions.”

Hartzler and Upton's office did not respond to request for comment.