WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� In the most contested races for , many Republican candidates are speaking up about women鈥檚 rights to in new and surprising ways, a deliberate shift for a GOP blindsided by some political ramifications of .
Looking directly into the camera for ads, or penning personal op-eds in local newspapers, the Republicans are trying to distance themselves from some of the more aggressive coming from their party and its allies. Instead the Republican candidates are working quickly to spell out their own views separate from a GOP that for decades has worked to put restrictions on reproductive care.
In New York, endangered GOP Rep. Mark Lawler, sitting at a kitchen table with his wife in one ad said, 鈥淭here can be no place for extremism in women鈥檚 health care.鈥�
In California, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel explains her own journey to parenthood with and vows, 鈥淚 have always supported women鈥檚 access to IVF, and will fight to defend it.鈥�
And in Arizona, GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani faces the camera and says, 鈥淚 want you to hear directly from me: I trust women. I cherish new life. And I reject the extremes on abortion.鈥�
It鈥檚 a remarkable new approach as the Republican Party works to prevent losses this November that could wipe out its . It comes in a fast-moving election season with and gripping stories of women's lives being by abortion restrictions.
The new strategy is both sanctioned and promoted by the House Republicans鈥� campaign arm, an acknowledgement of the GOP鈥檚 failure to grasp the political power of women鈥檚 reproductive care as an issue that would mobilize voters.
鈥淭he Republicans have always known they鈥檙e actually on the wrong side of this issue," said Ilyse Hogue, former president of the group previously known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, who is now a senior fellow at New America, a think tank in Washington. She said the party's shift 鈥渨ouldn't surprise me.鈥�
With the election fewer than 50 days away, the House Republican candidates are real-time road-testing how to talk about women鈥檚 access to reproductive care at a time when .
On the national level, , the Republican nominee for president, has both celebrated the Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization case overruling Roe v. Wade yet insisted it's best left to the states to decide whether to allow abortions. He's also distanced himself from the far right鈥檚 longtime goal of a national abortion ban.
With Democratic presidential nominee having replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the party鈥檚 ticket, Democrats are capitalizing on the vice president鈥檚 ability to mobilize women, and others, and vow to reinstate reproductive care in a campaign whose rally-goers cheer: 鈥淲e are not going back.鈥�
The campaigns for control of the U.S. House are as , with a few seats expected to determine which party holds the majority in the chamber, and whether Congress will become aligned with the White House or a potential opposition check on a new administration.
Republicans admit they did not expect abortion access to become such a determinative issue when the Supreme Court, in 2022, decided the Dobbs case that struck down Roe v. Wade, ending the right to abortion that had been the law of the land for nearly 50 years.
Voters didn鈥檛 always mention abortion access as a top concern in the 2022 election, Republicans said, but it became disqualifying for candidates who were portrayed as too extreme. The anti-abortion movement's push for a national abortion ban and proposed rollbacks of fertility treatments sparked a new focus. That November's promised 鈥渞ed wave鈥� of Republican election victories never materialized and the party barely won a House majority.
By summer 2024, polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a solid majority of Americans oppose a and a rising number support access to abortions for any reason. That鈥檚 an a year before the
In one contested San Diego-area House race, the Republican challenger Matt Gunderson speaks directly to the camera and declares: 鈥淚'm pro-choice.鈥�
Jack Pandol, the communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that in 2022, Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars 鈥渓ying about Republican candidates鈥� positions on this sensitive and nuanced issue.鈥�
鈥淩epublicans can鈥檛 let Democrats lie any longer 鈥� they should be clear, direct, and forcefully push back against these false attacks.鈥�
Still, House Democrats are redoubling efforts to gain control of the chamber by focusing on House Republican candidates and their abortion views 鈥� past and present.
鈥淩epublicans are trying to gaslight voters,鈥� said CJ Warnke, communications director of the House Majority PAC, which is the outside group supporting House Democrats.
House Majority PAC is pummeling Republicans with millions of dollars鈥� worth of campaign ads warning against extreme GOP views on abortion and reproductive care. It has pulled up the voting records, bill sponsorships and past commentary from both incumbents and newcomers and is promising to spend at least $100 million this election cycle on the issue in House races.
Democrats, too, have shifted to speaking more openly and forcefully in favor of reproductive care, led in many ways by Harris' example.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, vowed, 鈥淲e鈥檒l make sure the American people will know exactly how the Republicans have voted to restrict reproductive rights."
Congress has served as a key battleground in efforts to advance the anti-abortion agenda for decades, as Republicans have repeatedly proposed legislation to limit different types of abortion services, including late-term abortions.
Trump, along with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, orchestrated the confirmation of three justices to the nine-member Supreme Court 鈥� a historic accomplishment 鈥� during the former president鈥檚 term in office, fulfilling a longtime party goal of shifting the court to a conservative majority.
First celebrated as a conservative victory when the court overtured Roe v. Wade, the aftermath of the Dobbs decision soon became a political liability for Republicans as states began instituting abortion bans.
One of the nation's leading anti-abortion advocacy groups, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, is encouraging candidates in a strategy memo to recommit to ending abortion and portraying the Democrats as extreme in seeking to make abortion access available nationwide.
But GOP Rep. Lawler said it was important he address the issue head on because Democrats are attacking him as extreme on the issue. 鈥淰oters have a right to know where I stand,鈥� Lawler said.
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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
Lisa Mascaro, The Associated Press
