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.
Clearly it’s the messaging that’s the problem /s
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!
“Am I out of touch? No. It’s the voters who are wrong.”
“Pro-Life” is the best branding in the history of branding. If you’ve screwed that up there’s no where else to go.
Especially since in reality they are pro-birth only, they don’t care about providing adequate pre-natal care to all pregnant women, they don’t believe that safe birth conditions are a basic right, and they lose all the interest in the kids’ well being as soon as they are out.
It’s almost like they are only doing it to control women or something. /s
This is the first time I’m confused by the sarcasm tag….
Is the tag itself the sarcastic bit?
“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”
― George Carlin
Thank you. I’ve been saying that about pre-natal care for years. Really, they are not even pro-birth because if you want to give birth under safe hospital conditions, that’s on you and your insurance company, if you have one.
They’re not pro-anything except punishing women.
Hey now that’s not true, they are also pro punishing the non-whites, LGBTQ+ folks, non-Christians, and the poors(everyone who isn’t worth over a few million)
It reminds me of subways five dollar footlong. They made a slogan so piecing and effective that they can’t escape it. Every time I go to subway I notice how much more a sub costs than the five dollars it used to be and every time I hear “pro-life” I think of a very “particular” kind of person.
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
So you’re a Republican who refuses to vote Republican?
Are you one of them fancy “centrists”?
He’s just an idiot. He voted for this and now he doesn’t like it. Probably just wanted lower taxes without all the “policies”.
So you’re a Republican like Jews for Hitler were Nazis?
I hate to break this to you but if you believe those things you’re playing for the wrong team. You’re like a player that’s perpetually benched, cheering on the opposing team. They’re never going to let you play or give you the ball.
It’s also an older American colloquialism to describe people from the Spanish-speaking world. They’re not wrong, just a little behind on linguistic changes. Just imagine “Hispanophone” when they say “Spanish”; that’s what is meant in most cases.
(To be clear, I’m not telling you not to be offended if you’re from the Spanish-speaking world. I’m simply explaining that it’s a colloquialism, not a mistake or an attempt at offense.)
Is this like the “female” thing?
So this is honestly the first time I’ve heard that using “spanish” for Hispanic people (as opposed to “Spanish” i.e. people from Spain) is in any way offensive. I can’t remember hearing Hispanic people use it themselves, so maybe you’re right on this and I am the wrong one.
By way of comparison, what’s your stance on the offensiveness level of “Latinx”?
Spanish-speaking is better. Just “Spanish” is weird. Many folks from Mexico and South America don’t have any Spanish ancestry, and some people or entire countries don’t even speak Spanish as their main language. To reduce everyone who lives on one giant continent to the name of a conquering nation that tried to take them over is, yeah, a little offensive.
