Abortion rights proceed to dominate politics. This is what GOP candidates suppose : NPR

Maybe no difficulty is thornier for the 2024 Republican presidential main candidates than abortion.

Republicans broadly cheered the 2022 Supreme Court docket choice, Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being, that overturned Roe v. Wade. However since then, they’ve discovered that going too far on abortion restrictions generally is a political legal responsibility.

The Dobbs choice and subsequent state-level legal guidelines limiting abortion entry galvanized voters who help abortion rights. Each state poll measure on abortion rights since Dobbs has come out in favor of abortion rights, even in crimson states like Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.

On high of that, the GOP’s opposition to abortion rights has been blamed for Republican underperformance within the 2022 midterms, and November’s elections in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.

Consequently, Republican presidential candidates try a balancing act: the way to attraction to a celebration base that, to various levels, opposes abortion rights, with out alienating moderates, independents and common election voters who favor fewer restrictions. The outcome has been many broad statements about “defending life,” with out a complete lot of specifics about precisely what restrictions candidates favor.

For instance, former President Donald Trump, the main Republican candidate, has dodged the query of whether or not he helps a federal abortion ban, to not point out what sort of gestational limits he helps.

In the meantime, Democrats see defending abortion rights not solely as an ethical crucial however as a option to drive voters to the polls in 2024. Abortion rights advocates are working to place measures defending entry to the process onto ballots in 2024 in a number of swing states, within the hopes of energizing voters.

President Biden has by no means been a passionate crusader for abortion rights. However since Dobbs, he has been extra keen to marketing campaign on the problem. The query is how a lot it continues to drive voters in 2024, and to what diploma different points – issues concerning the financial system, Biden and Trump’s age, international conflicts – take over the dialog.

Does the candidate help a federal abortion ban?

The best-profile query on abortion that candidates face is whether or not they would again a federal abortion ban. Earlier than he dropped out of the race, former Vice President Mike Pence challenged his rivals to signal on to a 15-week federal ban, and several other did. (Candidates have given a spread of solutions on what number of weeks the cutoff for such a ban can be; that’s addressed in one other part beneath.)

Trump has been significantly evasive on the query, nevertheless. He has been requested a few federal ban a number of instances, and whereas he has by no means mentioned “no” outright, he has additionally regularly refused to again a federal abortion ban.

That mentioned, he as soon as did again a federal ban – throughout the 2016 marketing campaign, he promised to signal a 20-week federal ban if it got here to his desk as president, and in 2018, President Trump pushed Congress to go such a ban.

So what gestational limits, if any, does the candidate help?

Since Dobbs, states have handed quite a lot of legal guidelines about how a lot to limit abortion, giving candidates many alternatives to both reward or criticize a spread of restrictions. As well as, a number of the candidates signed abortion bans as governors or supported restrictions as legislators. Under are the assorted ranges of abortion restrictions that candidates both at present help or have supported prior to now.

Does the candidate help restrictions on remedy abortion?

Previous to the Dobbs choice, remedy abortion accounted for a majority of all abortions within the U.S. Since Dobbs, abortion rights activists have been serving to sufferers, together with these in states with tight restrictions, get entry to the tablets utilized in these abortions – misoprostol and mifepristone. One methodology is to ship the tablets to sufferers via the mail. In response, some states have handed legal guidelines making an attempt to restrict entry to these tablets.

The president has some energy to limit or increase entry to the tablets – Biden, for instance, signed an government order in early 2023 that protected entry to remedy abortion by way of telehealth appointments, and that additionally allowed pharmacies to distribute the tablets.

As president, Trump pushed to limit remedy abortion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Supreme Court docket to require sufferers to go to a well being care supplier as a way to obtain the remedy.

The candidates have mentioned little about whether or not and the way they might hope to limit entry to the tablets as president. NPR reached out to all campaigns about their stance on this subject and has not obtained responses.

What about exceptions within the case of rape, incest or the lifetime of the pregnant particular person?

Whereas Republicans usually oppose abortion rights, many imagine there ought to be particular circumstances through which a affected person ought to have broad abortion entry – specifically, when a being pregnant outcomes from rape or incest, or when an abortion would save a pregnant affected person’s life.

These three exceptions are widespread among the many Republican candidates, however some have supported or signed legal guidelines that both don’t comprise all three exceptions, or that comprise them to restricted extents. Nonetheless, all the remaining main candidates agree in offering these widespread exceptions. However, there may be nuance amongst their positions.

• Gov. Doug Burgum, R-N.D., signed a near-total abortion ban in North Dakota that included very restricted exceptions for rape and incest, permitting victims of these crimes to get abortions solely as much as six weeks of gestation. That legislation additionally allowed for abortion in circumstances that will save a affected person’s life or forestall extreme medical hurt.
• Former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., instructed Semafor in April 2023 that he helps exceptions in these three circumstances.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed a six-week abortion ban that included exceptions for rape and incest as much as 15 weeks if a affected person might present documentation. The ban additionally contained an exception to avoid wasting a affected person’s life.
• As governor of South Carolina, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley signed an abortion ban that contained an exception to avoid wasting a affected person’s life, however no exceptions for rape or incest. Nevertheless, in June, a spokesperson mentioned she would signal a invoice that included these exceptions.
• Vivek Ramaswamy has mentioned he helps exceptions in these three circumstances, in line with Reuters.
• Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly mentioned on the marketing campaign path this cycle that he helps these three exceptions.