Editorials & Other Articles

I’m not sure Republican politicians can back away from absolutist abortion bans. While many Republican voters and many Republican voters may be pro-choice (at least when it comes to their own personal circumstances), the fact remains that the anti-abortion movement remains the best-organized, best-motivated, and most determined voting block within many state and local Republican Party organizations.

In short, they’re motivated and they vote. (They’re also numerous). And they will continue to do so and be so for years to come. The problem is structural, since anti-abortion activists have such an outsize influence within the Republican Party. Any aspiring Republican politico seeking to win their party’s nomination to office will have to toe the line and toe it exactly. Aspiring Republican politicos may make positive noises about choice and allowing access to birth control before Election Day, but in order to keep the anti-abortion bloc happy, they’ll have to vote AGAINST allowing access to abortion and FOR restrictions on contraceptives once they’re elected. They have no choice: toe the line or out they go.