Democrats are looking to restart the abortion conversation around the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
That Supreme Court decision in June 2022 turned abortion into one of the most powerful positions Democrats could run on. They saw major victories on the issue in the 2022 midterms and Virginia’s off-year elections in 2023, but the party largely underperformed up and down the ballot on the issue with key groups in November.
The politics of abortion have shifted, and while Democrats and abortion rights activists say it’s important to call out Republican attacks on abortion access, they also acknowledge it’s not the same rallying cry they had hoped it would be in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
“I wouldn’t say abortion isn’t a winning message; ballot initiatives supporting abortion rights won in most places in November. Democrats just didn’t anticipate that voters would support abortion rights and Trump,” Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said in an email.
Setzer said she doesn’t think Democrats should stop talking about abortion. But it’s now competing with other emergencies, and they need to adjust the message.
Democrats are fighting the Trump administration and congressional Republicans on a host of issues including Medicaid cuts and the GOP tax and spending bill, deportations, defunding foreign aid, and the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency to dismantle federal agencies.
Going forward, “we need to do a better job showcasing abortion as an economic issue as well as a ‘rights’ one — for women, taking on an unwanted or forced-by-the-state pregnancy (and birth! and child-raising!) is about the most costly experience that can be imposed on someone,” Setzer said.
Congressional Democrats spent Tuesday’s anniversary giving floor speeches and holding press conferences with reproductive rights groups and abortion storytellers.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) hosted a panel discussion with other congressional Democrats featuring some of those storytellers, who discussed how they’ve tried to navigate living in states with abortion bans.
“Dobbs was never the end of this fight for Republicans, we all need to know that, their goal has always been a national abortion ban,” Murray said. “And since Republicans know they do not have the votes right now to pass a national abortion ban outright, they are slowly, but surely, advancing a backdoor nationwide abortion ban, and chipping away at access to reproductive health piece by piece — even in states where abortion is protected.”
There were no public events from Republicans, though Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and members of the House Pro-Life Caucus spoke on the House floor to celebrate the ruling.
The issue of abortion was seen as a galvanizing force during the 2022 midterms in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, blunting Republicans’ expected “red wave.”
The issue also was a winner for Democrats in the 2023 cycle, propelling them to gain control of the Virginia state Legislature, pass a constitutional ballot measure to enshrine abortion protections in Ohio, and earn Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) a second term in office.
But on the 2024 campaign trail, as Democrats leaned into the issue of abortion again, it did not resonate with the same force.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, said part of the problem for Democrats last November was that President Trump was able to successfully nullify concerns over abortion because he was so hard to pin down on the issue during his presidential campaign.
“It was a successful pivot,” she said.
He took credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, but said he would veto a national abortion ban. When he finally settled on the message of “leave it to the states,” people wanted to believe him, Timmaraju said.
The key for Democratic candidates is to make it clear that is not what Trump has done since he took office, and to highlight the voices of people living through the fallout.
“We’re seeing real life examples in elections that when voters, particularly these Trump voters who believed him when he said he was going to leave it to the states, when they see the list of things that his admin has already done to decimate access to care, whether it’s birth control, IVF or abortion, they are pissed off, and they are movable,” Timmaraju said.
The Trump administration has taken steps to restrict abortion; Democrats and activists say it’s a slow drip intended to mask what’s really happening.
Trump in January pardoned 23 people who were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by blocking access to reproductive health clinics.
Separately, House Republicans are advancing legislation that would repeal the law. The bill cleared the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
He reinstated the Mexico City policy that prevents U.S. foreign aid recipients from discussing abortion with their patients or providing referrals for the procedure.
Trump extended the policy to domestic programs, too, signing an executive order instructing government agencies to halt funding to programs that could be construed to “promote” abortion, such as family-planning counseling.
In April, the administration rescinded family-planning grants from more than a dozen reproductive health organizations. And earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rescinded Biden-era guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions when needed to stabilize patients, regardless of the state where they were receiving treatment.
Abortion rights groups say they will be ramping up efforts to highlight the administration’s actions, as well as to tie GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey to their anti-abortion records.
American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group focused on opposition research, said Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP’s candidate for the state’s upcoming gubernatorial election, has a long history of anti-abortion comments, and they want to bring those comments front and center.
The group maintains a public database of statements made by every Republican they are targeting.
The issues “get more salient as elections get closer. It’s go time for Sears,” American Bridge President Pat Dennis said, but his group has yet to launch any abortion statements or ads focused on Trump or congressional Republicans.
Overall, Dennis said voters know where the Democratic Party stands on abortion. The lesson from 2024 was that messaging needs to be on “parallel tracks.”
