Heritage Action argues better messaging can make anti-abortion cause popular
Brady Knox
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Imbued with enthusiasm over Florida’s recent 6-week abortion ban, Heritage Action argues the anti-abortion cause can be made popular on a national level, with proper messaging.
As activists for abortion bans score victories in some deep red states, the wins are offset by equal pushes for increased abortion access in blue states such as Colorado. Additionally, the anti-abortion movement was handed several defeats in prominent elections, including a resounding defeat in Wisconsin. However, Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson is confident that legislation restricting abortion could one day succeed in blue states, with proper messaging and funding.
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“Well, it’s a little bit of everything,” Anderson said, when asked by the Washington Examiner what she believed the key ingredient was to tip the scales in abortion opponents’ favor.
“You have to have candidates that are willing to talk about the urgent need to protect life,” she said. “In a post-Dobbs era, that’s calling on state lawmakers to do their part, it’s calling on members of Congress to consider their part. And so I think when you can confidently talk about it and not listen to the Left, then the GOP wins because they are talking about the issue directly, and then there’s spending hard campaign dollars that should flow from that. … But what should start at the beginning is the principle which is that conservatives are supportive of protecting life and that should come out loud and clear.”
Following electoral defeats in states such as Wisconsin, largely believed to be over issues such as abortion, some prominent conservative pundits argued that a tactical retreat from abortion was necessary, seeing it as an election loser.
“The demand for anti-abortion legislation just cost Republicans another crucial race,” author and pundit Ann Coulter tweeted, following the election loss in Wisconsin. “Pro-lifers: WE WON. Abortion is not a ‘constitutional right’ anymore! Please stop pushing strict limits on abortion, or there will be no Republicans left.”
https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1643462761626705920?s=20
Anderson disagrees with the sentiment, viewing opposition to abortion as non-negotiable. In her view, opposition to abortion is integral to being conservative.
She believes the worst thing Republicans could do is avoid the conversation entirely, allowing the abortion debate to be dominated by those advocating increased abortion access. She cited the 2022 midterm elections as an example, when liberals outspent conservatives by a factor of 45 on abortion messaging. And aside from increased funding, conservatives need to be more sympathetic in their messaging.
“Protecting life is integral to … conservative principles, and anywhere in the country that we can keep our eye on the ball, which is to save babies and protect them both; the mother that is going through, maybe it is an unplanned pregnancy, and maybe she needs wraparound support from her community, from her church, from her family,” Anderson said. “I mean, those are the types of things that should be talked about. And the truth is, when we run away from the issues that are already being talked about at kitchen tables, you know, all across the country, it just lets the left dominate the conversation. So leaving that discussion would be a mistake.
She pointed to other recent elections in states where abortion took center stage, yet resulted in a Democratic defeat, including Beto O’Rourke in Texas, Stacey Abrams in Georgia, and Tim Ryan in Ohio.
One of the most important aspects of abortion messaging for conservatives, aside from stressing the presence of exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother in abortion bans, as is the case with the Florida bill, is spreading information about the infrastructure for distressed mothers, Anderson said.
“There’s an awesome network that exists across the country through pregnancy resource centers that provide that sort of wraparound care that’s needed,” she said. “For moms that might be facing … an unplanned pregnancy. It helps them financially, it helps them get a job, it helps them reconcile with their partner if that’s what’s needed. Or if they don’t want to keep the baby, and adoption is a better solution for that mother, for that family, then they provide pathways to adoption. I would look there first. And I think the pregnancy resource center network across the country is so robust, I mean, I don’t even think the general public even realizes that there’s PRCs, multiple PRCs, in every state and access like that to real wonderful life-changing care. It changes lives. I mean, I know it firsthand from what I’ve seen.”
Anderson praised Florida’s recent “heartbeat” bill, saying it should be the standard for abortion legislation going forward, saying that basing life on the detection of a heartbeat is “very natural.”
“If Carson, who’s sitting right here next to me, were to fall on the floor, the first thing I would do is check to see if she had a heartbeat,” she said. “It’s a very natural thing, to trace life to a heartbeat, and there should not be any ignorance of that and whether it’s unborn … or out of the birth canal.”
Republican state Sen. Erin Grall, the sponsor of Florida’s SB 300, described the bill as a compromise. The bill tightens the window for allowing an abortion to one of the smallest in the country. The exceptions, including allowing abortion in the case of rape or incest, are popular with most voters, including a majority of those who oppose abortion.
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The bill drew condemnation from the White House, which blasted it as “extreme and dangerous.”
“The ban flies in the face of fundamental freedoms and is out of step with the views of the vast majority of the people of Florida and of all the United States,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.