Democrats are trying to get Republicans ‘on the record’ over reproductive rights

Democrats have made clear that they are getting Republicans to oppose popular infertility treatments “on the record,” as part of a strategy to bolster consensus ahead of the November election, The Guardian wrote. They used the tactic last week by pushing a vote to recognize women’s right to contraception nationwide, which similarly failed. Republicans have dismissed the efforts as “political games” by the Democrats; Sen. Josh Hawley told Politico he wasn’t worried about playing into their messaging tactic.

While Republicans have long argued that life begins at conception, IVF complicates their position, NPR wrote. More than 80% of Americans think IVF is “morally acceptable,” a recent Gallup poll found, posing a dilemma for Republicans: Voting to protect IVF will anger their base of white Evangelical Christians who demand legal recognition for “fetal parenthood,” and voting to end it will infuriate the vast majority of Americans who support it, argued Heather Cox Richardson, author of the Letters from an American Substack. Many GOP leaders have been vocal in their support of IVF, further muddying the party’s messaging.

The US presidential election could provide the first opportunity post Roe v. Wade to see how a second Trump presidency could limit abortion nationally, legal historian Mary Ziegler told PBS NewsHour, likely making it “the most consequential election” for reproductive rights in half a century. The latest US Supreme Court ruling upholding access to a widely-used abortion pill underscored the stakes of the 2024 election,” the Associated Press wrote. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that abortion was the “make-or-break” voting issue for 39% of suburban women in swing states.