EXCLUSIVE — You don’t need to be Nostradamus to know that Democrats will frame the 2024 presidential election as a referendum on abortion.
Given the
unpopularity
of their octogenarian incumbent and the
sour national mood
under his leadership, they’d be foolish not to. Recent polling suggests that
the public favors the Democratic position on abortion
over the Republican position by double digits. This advantage balloons among independent voters and women, the demographic groups that tend to decide national elections.
BIDEN EMERGES FROM FIRST HOUSE REPUBLICAN IMPEACHMENT THREAT UNSCATHED
The midterm elections, which saw the
much-hyped red wave reduced to a trickle
, made clear that pro-abortion enthusiasm moves votes. Even in the crimson confines of
Kansas
and Montana, pro-abortion ballot initiatives have won decisive victories since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
In order to take the Electoral College in 2024, not to mention the national popular vote, which Republicans have only won once since 1988, the GOP must select a uniquely gifted communicator on this impossible and fraught issue. It’s one thing to be correct, but it’s quite another to win hearts and minds when the voting majority emphatically disagrees.
In a recent exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) made the case that he represents the GOP’s best shot at successfully reframing the national conversation about abortion and drawing converts to the pro-life cause.
“We have to be pro-life even after birth, not just pro-life before birth,” Scott told the Washington Examiner. “Pro-life cannot be 40 weeks. It has to go into the first years of a child’s life.”
This is an especially crucial pivot for the GOP to make in the post-Roe era since the
cost of childbirth alone is
seen as prohibitive to many women. Even parents with private health insurance can expect to pay as much as $3,000 for delivery alone. This is particularly galling considering that Obamacare-compliant health insurance policies
cover the cost of contraceptives and even abortions, but not childbirth
or prenatal care. And given the constant demonization of crisis pregnancy centers in our media, it’s no surprise that pregnant women feel that abortion is their only choice; it is incentivized at every turn.
In order to reverse this system, Scott is co-sponsoring legislation that would extend the child tax credit to women at the moment when they become pregnant, not when the child is born. In addition, Scott continues to promote policies that funnel resources to women in need and to nonprofit organizations that cultivate a culture of life through block grants.
“We see way too much money going to Planned Parenthood,” Scott said. “Let’s divert some of these resources in order to give women a choice. … This would do more to help single moms like the one who raised me in a single-parent household in poverty. Healthcare and assistance after birth is necessary to encourage and increase the likelihood that a woman would make the decision for life.”
Scott’s life story gives him unique credibility on the issue of life among his Republican rivals. The power of his personal witness came through in May 2022
when he rebuked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin
at a Banking Committee meeting when she suggested that abortion access was beneficial to the labor participation rate and that abortion restrictions increased the odds of women living in poverty.
“I think framing [abortion] in the context of ‘labor force participation’ feels calloused to me. As a guy raised by a black mother in abject poverty, I’m very thankful to be here as a United States senator,” Scott told her.
It was the kind of devastating media moment that the pro-life movement has long lacked in an information landscape dominated by the opposition. It’s hard to imagine one of his GOP rivals making the case with similar authority. And his personal experience goes beyond his childhood and identity. Scott also volunteered in crisis pregnancy centers as a young man, and his position on abortion was largely formed by the experiences of his close friends in Goose Creek, South Carolina: one who had an abortion and suffered terribly from the consequences, and another who chose life in difficult circumstances. Scott recently called the latter to wish her a happy 35th birthday.
“I was pro-life before I was a Christian,” said Scott, who considers himself a born-again Christian. “Because of the experiences I was invited into, it was impossible for me to not be pro-life.”
Scott is quick to point out that his religious convictions did not lead him to becoming pro-life. This is a crucial distinction because pro-life messaging often makes the appeal to religious authority, which tends to fall flat with the general public. For nonbelievers, it doesn’t matter what God has to say about abortion.
“To me, it’s not a religious issue. My position is certainly reinforced by my faith. But I got there because of listening to women I knew who made a decision that informed and educated me on what this decision is really about,” he said.
Scott’s most fundamental priority is to cultivate a culture that protects life. He said it made him “nauseous” to see every Democrat in the Senate vote for abortion on demand up until the moment of birth. And with good reason: The infamous late-term abortionist Warren Hern of Boulder, Colorado, recently
admitted that half of the late-term abortions
he’d performed in his 50-year career were elective and that he’d even performed late-term abortions for sex selection. Democrats will proclaim that such incidents are exceedingly rare, and yet, we continue to discover that this just isn’t the case.
“This is something that we just have to stop,” Scott said. “Being one of six or seven nations that allows abortion after 15 weeks puts us in the category of China and North Korea. Cultivating a culture that protects and respects life as the president of the United States is something on which I’d want to engage the hearts and minds of the American people. A minimum ban of 15 weeks on the federal level will help us get to a place where there are fewer late-term abortions and fewer and fewer abortions. And then, hopefully, as we win the hearts and minds of the American people, we can actually have legislation that gets through Congress.”
It would be difficult for Republicans to put forward a more credible and persuasive messenger on this crucial issue than Scott. As the tiresome Donald Trump circus continues to spin out, and as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) continues to look more and more like Scott Walker 2.0, it’s worth noting that high-profile Democrats, such as former President Barack Obama, are focusing their aim on Scott. It’s easy to see why. His strengths neutralize many of their baked-in advantages, particularly on abortion.
If Republicans are serious about winning, they will give Scott a long look this primary season.
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Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner and the founder of Crush the College Essay. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, the National Catholic Register, and the American Spectator.
