Anti-abortion group vows to withhold influential endorsement unless GOP backs 15-week ban
Breccan F. Thies
Video Embed
The anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America reinforced its call for Republican candidates to support a federal 15-week abortion ban, saying it may be forced to withhold its influential endorsement.
Ahead of the first Republican presidential primary debate, the group, which is coming off of a ballot measure defeat in Ohio it blames on weak Republicans and grassroots apprehension, is doubling down on its efforts to push Republicans to endorse a national law.
SCHOOL FREEDOM FUND RELEASES AD ATTACKING KENTUCKY GOV. ANDY BESHEAR FOR SIGNING ‘DEATH WARRANT’
“It’s possible that we would endorse a candidate, but it’s also possible that we won’t and we have a very bright line that hasn’t changed and you must communicate your federal minimum standards,” SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser said on a press call, adding that a candidate would need to detail how they would combat the “extremes of California, Illinois, and New York” which support “abortion up to the end.”
SBA has called out both former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for not meeting its standard.
Dannenfelser said that, prior to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Republican politicians who spoke about the cause of advancing life were able to pay lip service to the idea without having it mean much because Roe would stop any limitations.
She said that trepidation and short-term losses are expected because Americans have gotten used to extremely lenient abortion access for the past 50 years.
“It makes sense, even though we don’t like it, that there’s a lot of fear on the part of candidates … now their actions are not theoretical statements,” Dannenfelser said, saying that the overturn of Roe has brought about a “pro-life spring of America.”
For that to come into fruition, Dannenfelser continued, the Republican Party and its candidates would need to message properly, both in terms of the virtues of their position and the “extreme abortion up until the moment of birth” position of the Democrats.
The “head in the sand” strategy of the 2022 midterms and many of the ballot initiatives then and since “will communicate expected losses and that is not to be abided,” she said, adding that Republicans succumbed to “fear.
“Politics is about two things, that is: Contrast and intensity of that contrast, where that contrast is clear,” Dannenfelser added. “When those two things are engaged or real, the pro-life position is going to win.”
SBA vice president for political affairs Billy Valentine, who was also on the call, said Republicans need to “go on offense,” using tools like media ad-buys and surrogate placements. Otherwise, as he said happened in Ohio, the side advancing life “continues to get out-raised and outspent by the other side.”
Another reason a federal law is needed is to counter statewide ballot initiatives passing across the country, Valentine added.
Messaging from Republicans should focus on several things, Dannenfelser said, concluding that each Republican presidential candidate needs to be “communicating their sense of love and protection for the child and loving service to the woman.”
Of the unborn, candidates need to continue to show voters that “this is a person, not an appendix to be taken out and discarded, but a human being.”
In arguments against a national law limiting abortion, some skeptical Republicans use the “slippery slope” analogy, contending that it would open the door for Democrats to use federal law against state actions limiting the procedure.
In his first interview after announcing for president, DeSantis made a similar argument on Trey Gowdy’s Fox News show, saying, he was “concerned about a Democratic administration with a [governmental] trifecta trying to nationalize abortion all the way up until birth.”
He said it would be an “abuse of power” and a violation of a state’s right to limit the procedure.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
However, both Dannenfelser and Valentine pointed out that the Democrats are already trying to make “abortion on demand up until birth” in the Women’s Health Protection Act.
“We dare not unilaterally disarm and leave the field,” Dannenfelser said. “That leaves the field to them to enact a law that will obliterate every single pro-life protection in the country.”