Some Republicans running for competitive or Democratic-leaning congressional seats are adopting and reviving a label that was almost extinct in their party: pro-choice.
The terminology marks some of the biggest changes in the Republican Party’s approach to abortion and reproductive issues that have challenged the party at the polls since the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in 2022.
It also frustrates Democrats and reproductive rights advocates who say Republicans are trying to redefine the term without fully supporting abortion rights.
Matt Gunderson, the GOP challenger to Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), released a Campaign ad last month in which he says directly to the camera: “As far as women’s right to vote, I’m pro-choice. I believe abortion should be safe, legal and rare.”
The Southern California district Gunderson wants to flip is listed as “likely Democratic” in a Decision Desk HQ/The Hill Election forecast. In an interview with The Hill, Gunderson said that “this is not a politically useful position that I have taken” and that he has long opposed “the government mandating health care for every woman.”
However, this does not necessarily extend to support for federal protections for abortion.
“I am against late-term abortion. “I have made it very clear that I will not vote for a federal abortion ban, and I have said that I will not vote to codify Roe v. Wade,” Gunderson said. “The Supreme Court has referred this to the states. It’s a states’ rights issue.”
Levin told The Hill that his opponent is trying to “mislead people” by describing himself as a “pro-choice.”
“I don’t really think you can be pro-choice if you believe states should have the right to ban all abortions. Those two things are just not consistent,” Levin said.
He also noted that Gunderson opposes California’s Proposition 1 in 2022, a measure that explicitly enshrines the right to abortion in the state constitution. Gunderson said the measure “opened a Pandora’s box for late-term abortions.”
“If they believe that the only way to be pro-choice is to support abortion with no limits and no restrictions, then I think that’s an extreme position that doesn’t resonate with most voters, let alone most voters “who support freedom of choice,” Gunderson said of criticism from Democrats.
Gunderson isn’t the only Republican to employ the pro-choice label but refuse to support federal protections.
“I am pro-choice. I believe [former President Trump] is functionally pro-choice,” said Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.), who represents one of the most representatives Competitive districts in the country, said CNN in September. “He wants the state to pass the abortion law itself. He doesn’t want to federalize abortion rights, and neither do I.”
Not all Republicans have a federal interpretation of “pro-choice.”
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican candidate for Senate, called himself “pro-choice.” in an interview with The New York Times shortly after he won the primary earlier this year. And Hogan said, unlike other Republicans who wore that label, that he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade to be codified into federal law. A page on Hogan’s website is dedicated to him Reproductive Rights Recordsby touting reviews from abortion rights groups and pointing out that in 2019 he answered “yes” when asked whether Roe was rightly decided.
But Hogan’s Democratic opponent, Angela Alsobrooks, did referred to his previous veto a bill in 2022 that would have expanded access to abortions by removing a restriction that would have allowed only doctors to perform abortions. And Democrats say his support for codifying Roe wouldn’t matter if Republicans controlled the Senate.
“There will never be a vote on whether or not we should codify Roe into federal law when Republicans are in the majority,” Alsobrooks said said The Associated Press last month.
Beyond the battles between candidates over abortion policy, the rise in the number of Republicans even using the term “pro-choice” shows how the party is recalibrating the way it talks about abortion.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) expressed this openly in the presidential debate, saying Republicans need to “do a much better job of regaining the trust of the American people on this issue, which, frankly, they just don’t trust in us.” .”
It could also be a sign of a changing stance on abortion among Republicans, who have largely supported the pro-life vote. As anti-abortion activists achieved a series of increasing successes — such as the House voting to approve a 20-week abortion ban multiple times in recent years — the number of Republicans embracing the pro-choice label or support declined employ for this.
Now Republican leaders, including Vance and former President Trump, say the matter should be left to the states.
Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are the most prominent abortion rights advocates in Congress, although they refused to support Democratic abortion legislation that they said went too far — and introduced an alternative Abortion Rights Bill.
Jack Pandol, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement: “The Republican Party has always been a big tent with room for diverse views.”
“It is the Democrats who have systematically expelled from office any member who does not share their extreme, dogmatic view that allows late-term abortions paid for by taxpayers,” Pandol said.
But Democrats give no credit to Republicans on the sidelines of that massive tent.
“House Republicans know that their extreme anti-voting policies are their greatest weakness, so they say everything in a desperate attempt to deceive voters. Unfortunately for them, if these anti-abortion extremists don’t tell the truth about their dangerous agenda to restrict reproductive freedom, we can do that for them,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton said in a statement.
Another Republican feeling pressure from Democrats for adopting “pro-choice” terminology is Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (NJ), whose district The rating leans toward Republicans.
Kean called himself pro-choice in a 2022 debate and reiterated that position to his campaign manager said Politico recently that Kean “is a pro-choice advocate with over twenty years of voices advocating for IVF and women’s rights.”
Sue Altman, Kean’s Democratic opponent, criticized him for using the term despite voting in the state legislature against a measure to codify a constitutional right to abortion.
“Tom Kean, Jr. clearly believes that NJ7 voters are unable to see through his election year label of ‘pro-choice,'” Altman said said on the social platform X.
