Quick Take: Answering Democrats on Abortion
Democrats' theme for 2024 is all abortion all the time
Democrats Believe Abortion Will Motivate Voters in 2024. Will it be Enough?
It may not be that simple, but as the 2024 race heats up, President Joe Biden's campaign is betting big on abortion rights as a major driver for Democrats in the election. Republicans are still trying to figure out how to talk about the issue, if at all, and avoid a political backlash.
The political backlash to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision started four years ago. The abortion issue worked for Democrats in 2020 and in 2022 - and it will work again in 2024 if we can’t frame the debate properly.
Note to Republicans, if you’re running for federal elected office, here’s how we talk about abortion in a post-Roe world:
We support the Dobbs decision, which sent the issue back to the states and the people to decide.
We do NOT support any federal interference in this process - for or against. That means we would NOT support a federal law restricting abortion or any other effort to apply a one-size-fits-all solution on all the states. This would be impossible to design and just as bad as Roe. Just ask Nancy Pelosi how that worked when she had the gavel.
As a federal candidate, you do not have a dog in the fight. Your opinion matters the same as every other citizen in your home state. Which means, as a federal candidate, your opinion is irrelevant. Learn how to say that succinctly.
Roe was the law of the land for two generations. Two generations of Americans did not have the chance to decide because the Burger court removed the issue from the democratic process. As such, the Dobbs decision will require generations to personally weigh the issue and decide for themselves how abortion will be treated in their state.
Note to the RNC and those raising funds for federal candidates: Stop talking about it. Stop sending “push polls” to solicit donations on the subject. Stop using abortion as a metric for measuring a candidate’s fitness. Amend that plank in The Platform to reflect the four bullets above.
This isn’t some kind of Jedi mind trick or “spin” and it has the benefit of actually being true. The Democrats have banked their fortune on repeating the lie that “Dobbs banned abortion.” It’s easier to defend the truth than a lie, so stick with the truth.