Former President Trump is giving moderate GOP lawmakers some breathing room on the volatile abortion issue, treading unusually cautiously on an issue that Democrats seek to make a political liability for Republicans in swing districts.
During a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers in the House last week, Trump urged Republicans to talk about abortion in a way that makes sense for their constituencies, saying they should discuss it “the right way,” according to a source in the room. The former president pushed the issue as a state rights matter, supporting exemptions in certain circumstances and calling the party’s stance on the issue “common sense.”
The message is in line with Trump’s Comments on abortion earlier this yearwhen he said the fate of abortion should be left to individual states, declined to comment on a possible federal ban on abortion, saying he supported exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother was in danger.
Trump’s advice last week gives Republicans running in districts that President Biden won in 2020 – and where Trump’s style often does them no favors – the green airy to campaign on the issue in a way that best suits their voters.
“It’s very helpful,” a Republican from Biden’s district told The Hill about Trump’s message on abortion. “And he has never been more disciplined on any other issue.”
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, whose district voted for Biden by about 6 percentage points in 2020, echoed that sentiment, calling Trump’s message “wise advice.”
“I believe that what President Trump is saying is true and will probably be helpful in the debates in November,” he added in an interview with The Hill.
Trump’s political cover is a departure from the typical active moderate and swing-state Republicans have toward the former president, often spending time distancing themselves from Trump’s vindictive style and bombastic positions while Democrats work strenuous to associate them with the former president.
Trump’s stance on abortion has changed over the years. Decades ago he supported abortion rights, and in 2016 he signed a letter banning abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy. Now he is taking a position that minimizes political risk – and is calling on others to do the same.
“There was a very serious discussion about how Republicans are going to talk about abortion in the upcoming election,” Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (Florida) told reporters after the meeting. “President Trump reiterated his view that this is a state issue. He thought that this would give members of our conference who have different views on this issue an opportunity to really address it locally, rather than having to discuss it in the broadest sense on a national level.”
The issue of abortion has become one of the biggest political challenges for Republicans since the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, leading to novel abortion bans in Republican-controlled states across the country.
Outrage over the decision – and the bans that followed – has fueled a wave of voter enthusiasm among Democrats. The abortion issue was widely seen as a key factor in Republican losses and indigent performance in the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump alluded to those defeats in his meeting with House Republicans, saying the issue was too critical to ignore. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Trump told the assembled lawmakers that abortion “cost us.”
Now some GOP lawmakers are urging Republicans to rethink their message on the issue.
“The country needs to hear that Republicans support life and support women,” Mace told reporters last week.
“This is not just a problem for Democrats,” she added later. “It’s a problem everywhere where people support common sense, a reasonable approach to abortion.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the more conservative Republican camp in the House of Representatives, said Trump is not concerned about the finer points of abortion policy, such as access to drugs that induce abortion.
“He doesn’t go into detail and he said we shouldn’t either,” Norman said.
Democrats are coming down strenuous on Republicans on the abortion issue. This month alone, Democratic Senate leaders have called votes on IVF and contraceptive protections, forcing Republicans to publicly block the bills. Republicans claim the measures are too broad and contain “poison pill” provisions.
“Most Republicans in the House have supported a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions. And now Republicans in the Senate have blocked a bill that would protect IVF nationwide,” said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). wrote on the social platform X“They are determined to take away our reproductive freedoms. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Republicans have taken a more cautious approach to abortion policy, both in federal legislation and in their campaign messages. Earlier this month, the Republican Party in the House of Representatives released a Financing Act that did not contain a provision to repeal a Biden administration rule allowing mifepristone to be sold in pharmacies and dispensed by mail – a legislative proviso that sparked intraparty disagreement last year. However, the National Defense Authorization Act passed with an amendment that would block a Biden administration policy reimbursing military personnel for travel expenses for an abortion.
Bacon said Trump’s comments on abortion reflected the “reality” of the situation: that only because of the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate will Republicans be able to pass meaningful changes on the abortion issue at the state level.
“The filibuster will accomplish nothing at the federal level, very little, and that’s just the reality,” he said. “Very few people have said that. And that’s why the president, I think, is being very smart and showing that that’s the truth.”
“It’s not essentially a federal problem because it’s very difficult to get anything done at the federal level,” he continued. “So it’s really a state problem.”
In some ways, Trump’s stance on abortion and Republicans’ embrace of it shows that Republicans are scaling back their anti-abortion stance to win elections. After years of campaigning to overturn Roe, few are calling for federal bans, even though previous Republican-controlled Houses of Representatives have passed abortion bans beginning at 20 weeks of pregnancy three times in recent years.
However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued that Trump’s stance and advice to Republican members did not contradict the party’s fundamental anti-abortion position.
“We are not sacrificing fundamental principles,” Johnson said. “We all believe in the sanctity of human life. And everyone has to go to their constituency and explain it their way. And President Trump has encouraged everyone to do that.”
Johnson made a similar argument to Bacon, viewing Trump’s position in terms of political practicality rather than principled considerations.
“Before you can get a political consensus on a difficult issue, you need a cultural consensus,” Johnson said. “And right now we just don’t have enough votes in Congress to do anything at the federal level.”
