As the 2024 elections approach, former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is urging Republicans to reach a consensus on abortion — an issue used by Democrats as a voter “turnout intensifier.”
After Conway met with GOP lawmakers this week on Capitol Hill to discuss the hot-button topic, she told Fox News Digital that pro-life conservatives need to be “mindful” of both the baby and the mother.
“I think pro-lifers have to be very mindful to speak about two people being involved in an abortion — the baby and the mother. So, I’m urging opinion leaders and office holders and all their decision makers, as well as candidates, to speak with conviction and compassion,” she said. “That’s the piece that’s missing.”
“The overwhelming data in contraception polling is meant to work in tandem with, not in lieu of, the pro-life abortion messaging,” she stated, noting that contraceptives are widely supported across America.
Following the Supreme Court’s historic overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, abortion-related ballot initiatives have appeared in many states.
With Democrats stirring the panic pot with cries of “reproductive freedom for all” and claims that Republican candidates and lawmakers want to ban abortion, the initiatives haven’t gone well for the GOP, according to Conway, especially when they lack exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother.
A more “winning” Republican strategy is needed, she believes, as, according to Fox News Digital, “Strategists and operatives from both parties argue the issue has driven more voter turnout for Democrats in state and local elections across the country, evidenced by better margins for the Democratic position in those initiatives and other coinciding races.”
Statistics cited by Conway indicate that “a strong majority of Americans fall within the range that there should be no abortion at all and no abortions past 15 weeks,” the outlet reports.
“To speak with conviction and compassion, to reflect consensus, to move hearts and minds, means that if you want to discuss a 15-week national minimum standard, then you are reflecting consensus,” Conway said. “When you do that, you get up to 71% of America, and that reflects consensus. But it also shows conviction and compassion, because in 15 weeks, a woman knows she’s pregnant and the baby can feel pain.”
Republicans, she argued, would be “smoking out” Democrats who have “radical, extreme, out-of-step, out-of-sync positions on abortion, anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyhow” if only they could reach such a consensus.
Having said that, Conway stated that it’s a “mistake” to claim that all Democrats are in favor of abortion up to the moment of birth.
Focus groups and polling, the strategist said, show that, across America, the consensus is against partial and late-term abortions, especially when they are made aware of the science that shows babies experience pain at “roughly 15 weeks.”
“They’re against taxpayer-funded abortion,” Conway said. “They’re against sex selection abortion when a woman can learn she’s pregnant in the morning, learn the sex of the baby by noon and schedule an abortion for that afternoon.”
“Now, people will say that’s not true because they don’t want it to be true,” she added. “That is true. What I just said to you is a fact.”
A consensus coupled with an understanding of the science, she said, could “move the hearts and minds” of those Democrats who are supporting late-term abortion.
“When you give these shock-the-conscious anecdotes, and you couple that with warm-the-heart information, then you have a more winning message,” she explained.
“Pro-lifers should not be ostriches, they should be peacocks,” she added. “They should not bury their head in the sand. They should be very proud that they’re on the right side of science and medicine and morality and common sense and consensus opinion.”
With her strategy, Conway said, the GOP could get ahead of Democrats’ continued claims that Republicans want to ban abortions and contraception.
“We’re getting ahead of that by showing that this is a winning issue to say that you believe that women, and yes, men, but women, who can legally access contraceptive measures are able to do that now,” she said.
“It is a losing formula to cede to the Democrats the women’s vote, women’s health, choice, women’s health care. And so we’re expanding what that means, and we are smoking out the Democrats,” Conway stated.
“When they say, ‘We’re for women, and we’re for women’s health,’ what they really mean is abortion,” she said. “It’s all a euphemism for abortion. And if you don’t believe me, believe them. They cannot even condemn Hamas’ rape of women, beheading and baking babies and raping women. And the reason they’re not interested in that is because they’re interested in one thing — abortion.”