Republicans are trying to find a new term for ‘pro-life’ to stave off more electoral losses
Republicans are trying to find a new term for ‘pro-life’ to stave off more electoral losses
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., summarized the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill as being focused on “pro-baby policies.”
Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.
At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.
The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that “pro-life” no longer resonated with voters.
“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ... at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the polling made it clear to him that more specificity is needed in talking about abortion.
“Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and ‘pro-choice’ now can mean any number of things. So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels, that they’ve shifted. So if you’re going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific,” Hawley said Thursday.
"Am I out of touch? No. It's the voters who are wrong."
The first rule of pursuing abhorrent policies for performative reasons is, they need to stay performative. The GOP used to understand this, and carefully pursue anti-abortion policies while carefully not achieving them. But now there's too high a proportion of people who are such nutcases that they genuinely don't understand or don't care that this will lose them elections, and the strategic Republicans are struggling more and more to keep control of their party.
It used to be the same with "anti-immigration" policies that were surgically careful to preserve the vulnerable workforce while making the right type of performative gestures, until DeSantis came in being enough of a true believer that he's willing to damage Florida's economy pretty significantly as long as it lets him be cruel to spanish people.
The safeties are getting disabled, basically.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -Barry Goldwater
Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever
Remember that scene from The Boys where Stormfront said:
People love what I have to say, they just hate the word Nazi. That's all.
Now why would a party that bans abortion with no exceptions in many states, even to the point of banning abortions after a raped 10-year-old got one in a state because she couldn't get one in hers, not be thought of as "pro-life"?
There's a lot to unpack in this article, I encourage you all to actually read it. It sounds like a fundamental disconnect between Republican Congresspeople (who enact laws at the Federal level) and the State-level Republicans. These Senators supported overturning Roe specifically did it to "send the matter back to the States", and did not propose any law at the Federal level to replace it, only to find that those Republican states enacted extremely strict laws that are now affecting the Republican brand elsewhere. (Because of a simple reason: Republicans in those states really are that extreme!)
But, they're stuck with it now. Their messaging is tied to what actually happened in those states. And these Senators can say all they want that they wanted exceptions all along, but you know they will never make a Federal law that weakens the strict bans in those states. They would never win a primary after that. But the strict bans are not popular outside the statehouses where they were enacted.
As long as there are states like Texas, who aim to criminalize abortion to the point that they will be monitoring the roads going out-of-state for pregnant women to harass, there will be no chance to define the pro-life movement as anything else.
💀
"How can we trick the voters into thinking we're less shitty than we know we really are?"
Yeah, they never were really into pro life, were they? It’s more about neo-slavery:
- Ensure less fortunate people end up so overburdened with financial trouble that they desperately take a pittance from “job creators” with a smile.
- Cult-of-personality the shit out of idiot billionaires so that people overlook their evils for moment-to-moment trivialities and hot takes.
- Make up culture war bullshit to ensure the fighters end up just expending their angst on the other less fortunate people rather of those who actually manufacture their hardships.
The problem is, if they legit want to go "Pro-Baby" then they have to explain this:
But I guess nobody ever forced them to explain how they could be Pro-Life but also Pro-Death Penalty...
Getting a win in the abortion case is probably the worst thing to happen to the GOP. They chased the car fruitlessly to get the crazies on board and the rest quietly tolerated it because they knew they would never actually catch the car.
Well. They have their jaws around the bumper now and no plan on how to let go without getting hit by the car behind them.
"Anti-Women"? Because that's what Republicans are...
Call it what it is, Anti-choice
Anti-choice/women/freedom is a good option
How does pro-fascism sound? For once in the history of modern republican party, it is also accurate.
Comcast becoming Xfinity didn't help their image as a shitty cable company, and I don't think changing from pro-life to something like pro-baby is going to help mask their abortion policies.
Anti-Women? Yeah, let's go with that.
Maybe they shouldn't have rebranded from "anti-abortion" to "pro-life" in the first place.
And why do dumbtards get pissed off at the mere mention of "Obamacare" but not the "Affordable Care Act" when they are one and the same thing?
pro-forced birth, pro--women are incubators, pro-sexual slavery
anti-women, anti-civilized, anti-livingI call them Forced Birthers. Misogynists. Anti healthcare. Zealots. Wackos. Catholics.
What they're doing has now increased abortion. Its the opposite result they purportedly say they want.
Well their policies are anti-life so maybe that
They should just go with "fascist". It's the most descriptive of their policies.
For as long as humanly possible, I will ensure that everyone around me understands that their intent the next time they gain any power at all is the complete dismantlement of the US government and democracy as we currently know it.
Let them be stupid enough to choose and try to rebrand “birther”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON — Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.
The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that “pro-life” no longer resonated with voters.
Senators who attended Law’s presentation said he encouraged Republicans to be as specific as possible when they describe their positions on abortion, highlighting findings that he said could have a negative impact on elections.
The NRSC, the source said, is “encouraging candidates to contrast that position with Democrats’ support for taxpayer-funded abortion without limits.”
An NBC News poll conducted in June found that 61% of all voters said they disapproved of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Dobbs decision, which left the legality and conditions of abortion up to the states.
Ambassador Nikki Haley said her opponents were not being honest with Americans about what would be legislatively feasible when it comes to potential federal restrictions on abortion.
The original article contains 1,032 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 83%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
"Pro-Forced-Birth"
I'll give them the proper term, and this is for free: "forced birther".
"pro-life" no longer resonated with voters.
Makes sense, when the same party also believes in unlimited access to guns and assault weapons.
“Anti-choice”.