Republicans bob and weave on abortion — as Democrats hammer away

Democrats have been hammering GOP candidates on abortion since the fall of Roe v. Wade. That’s left some Republicans scrambling to try to figure out how to soften the blow.

A number of Republicans are trying to avoid political fallout from the Dobbs decision by quietly deemphasizing their past position on abortion on campaign websites and on the trail. Another handful of GOP candidates — especially those in contests in states that are more of a reach for the party — have gone up with TV ads looking to counter Democrats’ attacks on abortion.

Among the earliest Republicans pushing back on the issue on TV was Mark Ronchetti, a one-time TV meteorologist who is challenging Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico this year, after losing a close race for the state’s open Senate seat two years ago.

“I’m personally pro-life, but I believe we can all come together on a policy that reflects our shared values,” Ronchetti says in the ad, saying that Lujan Grisham was “extreme” on abortion. “We can end late-term abortion, while protecting access to contraception and health care.”

Ads like this are coming as Democratic groups have poured tens of millions into TV campaigns focused on abortion — including making it a central theme that boosted Democratic Rep.-elect Pat Ryan to victory last week in a closely watched special election.

Ronchetti aired his ad for about two weeks in mid-July, spending $60,000 on it, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact. On the day the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision, Ronchetti put out a statement saying he believed permitting abortion up to 15 weeks — along with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother afterward — was “a very reasonable position that most in New Mexico will support regardless of party affiliation.”

Still, Democrats continue to hammer away at him, saying he is not being honest. A recent ad from Planned Parenthood Votes says “the real Ronchetti would take away a women’s right to control her own body,” tying him to strident anti-abortion groups like Right To Life that supported his Senate campaign last cycle, during which Ronchetti’s website described him as “strongly pro-life” and said that “life should be protected — at all stages.”

Some other Republicans have moved to decentralize opposing abortion in other parts of their campaign. Republican Blake Masters pushed out a Twitter video last week attacking Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) as extreme on abortion for not supporting any limits, saying in the video that “I support a ban on very late-term and partial-birth abortion.”

But Masters’ own website once read that he supported a “federal personhood law” and declared him “100 percent pro-life” — lines which have since been scrubbed from his site, NBC News first reported. His campaign website, under the subhead “protect babies, don’t let them be killed,” now reads that the “Democrats lie about my views on abortion” and says that Masters would support a third trimester federal abortion ban.

Masters had previously told the Arizona Republic that he believes a “personhood law” would provide the foundation to ban third-trimester abortions, while some proponents of that idea say it would ban all abortion. He also called Arizona’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks a “reasonable solution” in the interview with the Republic.

Another prominent example of website-scrubbing was uncovered recently in Michigan by The Detroit News. State Sen. Tom Barrett, the GOP nominee challenging Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in a top swing district, removed a section of his campaign site that touted his opposition to abortion.

Barrett told the Detroit News that he didn’t know why the website was updated but that his position had not changed: he still supports a ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Still he is far from the only other candidate to tweak their online footprint.

Republican Christian Castelli removed his anti-abortion rights position from his site after winning a May primary to take on Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.). In his second run against Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Republican Tyler Kistner makes no mention of abortion access on his website — though his 2020 site described him as “100% Pro-Life”.

In a newly created Colorado battleground district, Republican Barb Kirkmeyer listed defending “the Sanctity of Life” on an issue page of her website, according to a July 5 archived version of the page. An old version also included a video of her speech at the 2022 March for Life event. Both references now appear to be gone.

Still, the issue has become so big in some Republicans’ campaigns that they’re cutting ads responding to Democrats on abortion. Tiffany Smiley, a Republican who is challenging Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), has put out a pair of ads over the past week emphasizing that she is “pro-life” — but saying she wouldn’t back a federal abortion ban.

“As an OB-GYN triage nurse, I have seen the heartbreak and the tears. I’m pro-life, but to be clear, I will oppose a federal abortion ban,” Smiley says in an ad that started airing on Monday. “It is past time that we stop treating pregnancy like a disease that prevents women from getting a job or a raise.”

In Connecticut, Republican Bob Stefanowski, who is gearing up for a rematch with Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont after narrowly losing to him in 2018, goes one step further. “In the race for governor, both Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski are pro-choice. The difference is on affordability,” the narrator of one Stefanowski ad says, before attacking the incumbent over the economy.

And some Republicans who have not moderated on abortion have still downplayed it on the trail.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP gubernatorial nominee there, has championed efforts to ban abortion throughout the state, taking the most strident positions among the Republican primary field. But since then, Pennsylvania-based press has repeatedly noted that the candidate does not bring up the topic as much.

On the day Roe was overturned, Mastriano said “the other side wants to distract us,” adding that ”people in this area and in my part of the state across the border here are struggling to make ends meet and they don't care about those issues there.”