Republicans in critical Congressional races are reshaping their stance on prohibiting abortion, in some cases backing away from stricter limits on the procedure in the wake of public backlash.
Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, and candidate Kari Lake, who is running for Arizona’s open Senate seat, have both moderated their position on restricting abortion. So has the Republican front-runner in Nevada’s Senate race, who recently cited his wife’s past abortion in his decision to back a 24-week limit.
The shift comes amid polling and two consecutive election cycles where voters pushed back against strict abortion limits, either by backing ballot measures enshrining abortion access or by rejecting Republican candidates who embraced stricter limits.
Abortion limits are now a central issue in the presidential campaign and one that Democrats hope will taint the Republican Party enough to help President Biden win a second term and Democrats keep their narrow Senate majority.
Mr. Scott, when serving as Florida’s governor just a few years ago, pledged to sign a law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
He now supports a more generous timeframe that allows abortion until 15 weeks of pregnancy as he seeks a second term in the Senate.
Mr. Scott shifted his position as Florida Democrats try to galvanize their base with a November ballot measure that would quash the state’s looming six-week limit on abortion and bar Florida from restricting the procedure before fetal viability, or 24 weeks of pregnancy.
While Republicans outnumber Democratic voters significantly in the state, the abortion measure could bring out enough Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to tighten up the race against his likely Democratic opponent, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Mr. Scott told The Washington Times he is a pro-life lawmaker and an advocate of adoption, but he said the Republican Party needs to also be compassionate about unwanted pregnancies, and that is what Florida voters are telling him.
A USA Today/Ipsos poll released last week found three out of five registered voters in Florida favor a ballot measure expanding abortion access, and more than half oppose the state’s six-week ban, which will take effect in the coming weeks.
Mr. Scott said he had examined data from polls and focus groups and met with Florida voters to reach his decision to support a 15-week limit.
“We ought to be where the consensus is,” Mr. Scott said. “In my state, that consensus is 15 weeks.”
Ms. Lake, who ran as an ardent pro-life candidate in her unsuccessful bid for Arizona governor in 2022, has moderated her position since Arizona’s state Supreme Court ruled earlier this month to uphold an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions.
“This total ban on abortion that the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled on is out of line with where the people of this state are,” Ms. Lake said on social media after the ruling.
The latest poll of likely Arizona voters shows her running five points behind her likely Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego.
Voter turnout will be a crucial factor in deciding the race, and state Democrats plan to animate their base with a November ballot initiative similar to Florida’s, which would enshrine access to abortion in the state for 24 weeks of pregnancy. Mr. Gallego listed abortion rights at the top of his “priorities” on his campaign website and said if elected to the Senate, he would vote to eliminate the filibuster to legalize abortion at the federal level.
Ms. Lake has shifted slightly in Mr. Gallego’s direction, announcing in a campaign video earlier this month she does not back a federal abortion ban and thinks abortion limits should have exceptions.
“I chose life, but I’m not every woman. I want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made,” Ms. Lake said.
Mr. Scott and Ms. Lake are backing abortion limits that are not only the most favorable in public opinion polls but also align with the stance of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Mr. Trump is leading Mr. Biden in Arizona and Florida.
Mr. Trump has rejected total bans on abortion or “heartbeat” legislation, which would ban abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
The former president announced last month he does not support a federal ban on the procedure and that the states should decide the matter, a position the Supreme Court affirmed when it threw out the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had legalized abortion at the federal level, in June of 2022.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump said he believed that a 15-week limit would work best because polling showed that it had the greatest level of public support.
“Even hard-liners are agreeing … 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at,” Mr. Trump said in March.
He blamed the Republican 2022 election losses on party and state lawmakers pushing for strict abortion limits in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision — a decision Mr. Trump takes credit for because he appointed three justices who made it possible.
Campaigning earlier this year ahead of the Iowa caucus, when he was competing in the Republican primary against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mr. Trump denounced Florida’s six-week ban on abortion that Mr. DeSantis pushed through the legislature and then signed into law. Mr. Trump called it “a terrible mistake.”
Mr. Trump also said he backed exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and Ms. Lake parroted that line in her statement following state supreme court ruling upholding the 1864 law.
“I agree with President Trump, we must have exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of a mother,” she said.
Mr. Scott, a Trump ally, is also advocating for those exceptions.
In Nevada’s closely-watched Senate race, the likely Republican candidate, Sam Brown, moved swiftly to moderate his position on abortion. He previously supported restrictions ranging from a 20-week limit to an all-out ban except when the mother’s life is in danger.
Mr. Brown, the prohibitive frontrunner in the state’s primary, is on course to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen in November.
The latest polling of registered voters shows the two statistically tied, and based on the last Senate race, abortion could be a deciding factor.
Two years ago, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada by less than 1% of the vote. Many had predicted the poorly performing economy and high gas prices would drag down Ms. Masto and flip the seat to Mr. Laxalt.
The election was held just months after the high court ruling on abortion. Ms. Masto campaigned heavily on protecting abortion access while Mr. Laxalt ducked the issue.
Exit polls found abortion ranked second among the issues that mattered most to Nevada voters, and 89% of those who voted for Ms. Masto said abortion access was their top issue.
Abortion in Nevada is legal for up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Advocates want to make it harder to restrict or change the law by enshrining it in the state constitution through a November ballot measure, which could also bring out additional voters for Ms. Rosen.
Mr. Brown, hoping to neutralize abortion as a weapon for Democrats, has softened his stance, calling for compassion for women who become unexpectedly pregnant.
Mr. Brown recently said he does not support further limiting the state’s 24-week limit, nor would he back a federal ban.
Mr. Brown, an injured veteran who served in Afghanistan, announced his new position in an NBC News interview while sitting next to his wife, who revealed during the sit-down that she had an abortion when she was 24.
“Things just get boiled down to trying to put something on paper or draw a line in the sand, and it’s missing the point that there is at least a woman who is going through what might be one of the most challenging things in her life,” Mr. Brown said in the interview. “We need to take care of those women.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.