During the 2024 presidential election, former Vice President Mike Pence was the most staunchly anti-abortion candidate, pressuring other Republicans in the primary to endorse a 15-week federal abortion ban.
Pence was unsuccessful in his White House bid against his former boss, President Donald Trump.
Two years later, the anti-abortion movement is searching for leverage inside a Republican Party dominated by Trump, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) could be its answer.
The Missouri senator and his wife, Erin Hawley, have worked together to restrict access to abortion in a multipronged effort. Erin Hawley has argued on behalf of the Alliance Defending Freedom in front of the Supreme Court against access to mifepristone, one of two pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion.
That record could give the Missouri senator an opening with anti-abortion activists dissatisfied with the administration as Republicans begin maneuvering ahead of the 2028 presidential primary, GOP strategists have suggested to the Washington Examiner.
“He’s done a great job standing for the cause for life. I think it’s been disappointing how few have joined him in that,” said Marc Short, Advancing American Freedom’s chairman and former chief of staff to Pence.
“If the Trump administration continues to wander away from the pro-life community,” Short said. “That juxtaposition will be even sharper for Josh Hawley in the 24 months ahead.”
Hawley and his wife launched the Love Life Initiative in December 2025 to highlight anti-abortion rights ballot measures across the nation. In March, the Missouri senator introduced the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act that would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for abortion.
“The science is clear: The chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse,” Hawley said at the time. “Yet major companies like Danco Laboratories are making billions off it.”
During confirmation hearings for Attorney General Todd Blanche, Hawley pushed him to settle lawsuits filed by conservative-led states against the FDA over mifepristone. Anti-abortion advocates were disappointed over the Justice Department’s lack of support for states such as Louisiana, which sued the FDA and mifepristone drugmakers, claiming it overrode Louisiana’s law barring elective abortion. The DOJ previously argued that states such as Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho lacked merit to sue the FDA over mifepristone, a stance that aligns with the Biden-era DOJ.
Some anti-abortion leaders praised Hawley’s efforts but were not completely sold on him as a 2028 candidate.
“Sen. Hawley has an exceptional record on defending Life, not just with words but with deeds,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action. “We hope that he inspires all GOP elected officials to follow his example. It’s a little early to say someone is the ‘dream candidate,’ but I dream of candidates who all stand strong on life, as Sen. Hawley has done and continues to do.”
Vice President JD Vance is presumed to be the front-runner in the emerging shadow GOP primary, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But frustrations among anti-abortion leaders with the Trump administration could complicate Vance’s efforts to consolidate the movement and create an opening for Hawley.
Funding for Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood was restored last month, after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act blocked federal funding to the organization for a year. Congressional leaders have conceded that they are unlikely to include language cutting off Planned Parenthood funding again in another party-line spending legislation this year. The FDA slow-walked a safety study of mifepristone before finally moving forward with it in June.
“There’s no doubt that I think JD fancied himself as an advocate for the pro-life community, but he’s been absent from every one of the battles they’ve had to face,” Short said. “And has basically toed the line behind the administration.”
In private, anti-abortion leaders have praised Hawley’s actions to the Washington Examiner but stopped short of going all in for him to run in 2028.
“From a pro-life perspective, he’ll have one of the strongest records you possibly could going into the race,” said one national anti-abortion leader involved in the political side.
The leader compared a possible Hawley bid to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential run, when he won the Iowa caucuses by building support among evangelical Christians, Catholics, and anti-abortion voters but ultimately lost the nomination to then-Sen. John McCain.
“I hope that Sen. Hawley runs to represent a very strong pro-life choice,” the anti-abortion leader added. “I think the senator would have a chance if he ran, but even if he ran and someone else like the vice president ultimately gets the nomination, I think that having a competitive primary where you know issues like abortion are litigated is helpful.”
Patrick Brown, a fellow at the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center, cautioned that the anti-abortion vote may not be enough to help Hawley carve out a lane in 2028.
“It’s going to be challenging for any nominee to kind of stake out the more conservative than thou lane, simply because Trump has shown that, at least to some degree, the primary voters and certainly the general election voters are comfortable with deviations from orthodoxy,” Brown said. “So just saying I’m the purest on this issue isn’t necessarily going to be successful in the long haul.”
Although Trump has kept the anti-abortion community at a distance, he is still polling at 52% among evangelicals according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll released in June.
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Advocates said healthy competition among the 2028 primary candidates would benefit the GOP instead of simply anointing Vance.
“Even when you have someone who looks like a prohibitive front-runner or a very strong candidate, it’s helpful for there to be a competition,” the national anti-abortion leader said. “Because I think that ultimately pulls the final candidate more towards the better position that the party faithful hold, like on being pro-life.”