Republicans steer clear of abortion at convention

One of the defining issues of the 2024 campaign was mostly absent from this year’s Republican convention, underlining the party’s desire to sidestep its own push to enact restrictive abortion policies in red states across the country.

At the 2020 GOP convention, anti-abortion activists Abby Johnson and Deirdre Byrne were given speaking slots to argue Democrats were extreme on the issue. This year, only one of the “everyday Americans” who addressed the convention touched on the issue.

Business owner Diane Hendricks told the crowd she got pregnant when she was 17.

“That was not part of my plan, but I truly believe that every life is a sacred gift from God. I give thanks every day for my son,” she said, going on to detail her journey as a business owner.

The lack of attention to abortion underscores the degree to which Trump has shifted the party’s rhetoric on the issue. And it reflects how it is viewed as perhaps the party’s biggest vulnerability headed into November, the first presidential election since a conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

In Trump’s 2020 RNC address, he blasted Democrats as supporting “extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies” and vowed that “all children, born and unborn, have a God-given right to life.”

The former president regularly boasts about ending Roe v. Wade and returning the issue of abortion to the states, but in his keynote address on Thursday night, there was no mention of abortion or talk of the end of Roe v. Wade.

His vice presidential candidate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), also made no mention of abortion in his remarks on Wednesday night, as his past comments supporting a federal abortion ban and opposing exceptions for rape and incest have gotten new attention.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), head of the Senate GOP campaign operation, told the audience on Thursday night a Republican majority would build the border wall, “drill, baby, drill,” protect gun rights, back the military, support Israel and keep men out of women’s sports. 

But there was no mention of limiting abortion federally or protecting unborn children, as would have been commonplace at conventions before Roe was overturned. 

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), head of the House GOP campaign arm, similarly made no reference to abortion when outlining what a Republican House majority could deliver. 

Abortion has become a central focus of the 2024 campaign for Democrats, whose voters have been energized since the Supreme Court decision in June 2022. The issue has helped Democrats retain control of the Kentucky governor’s mansion and the Virginia Legislature and win other key races, and the party is hoping it will deliver again in November.

Trump has attempted to portray himself as more moderate than others in his party on the issue, stressing his support for certain exceptions to allow for abortions, saying states should be left to decide how to handle the issue and dodging calls to support a federal limit on the procedure. Vance has moderated his position as well. 

The GOP on Monday adopted a platform that significantly scaled back its language on reproductive rights. It dropped previous language calling for an amendment to the Constitution to extend protections to unborn children, and it dropped language opposing same-sex marriage.

“I think it’s a recognition of the reality of politics in the country. The states are handling it,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a CNN-Politico Grill event Thursday, rejecting that Republicans now accept that blue states will approve abortion access.

There were some signs at the convention of a conservative movement still focused on limiting abortions. 

The Faith and Freedom coalition, an evangelical conservative group that is advocating for legislation at the state and federal level to curb abortion, hosted a breakfast Thursday with Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), among others.

RNC co-chair Michael Whatley told the social conservatives in attendance the party had “put together a very strong, pro-life platform.”

Johnson highlighted in his remarks that a core part of the GOP world view is the “sanctity of human life.”

Faith and Freedom coalition founder Ralph Reed introduced Youngkin as a man “who stands for the unborn, for traditional marriage and for the conservative faith-based values we hold dear.”

Concerned Women for America, a conservative group, had a large pink bus parked near the convention center with the words “American Women Want …” painted on the side and “choose life” listed among the priorities.

Trump has significant credibility with those groups because of his first-term in office, when he appointed anti-abortion judges and rolled back federal support for abortions. 

But he and those around him have largely shrugged off the concerns of anti-abortion activists during the 2024 campaign, arguing it is more important to be able to win elections than take a clear stance on the issue.

“He’s always been there on those issues to tell you the truth. I think that’s reflective of who my father is and what he believes in … and my wife Lara who runs the RNC and what she believes in,” Eric Trump told NBC News this week. “At the end of the day, this country has real holes in the roof, and you’ve got to fix those holes and stop worrying about the spot on the wall in the basement.”

Democrats have shown they are unwilling to let Trump off the hook or portray himself as a moderate on the issue. 

The Biden campaign has aggressively tied Trump to Project 2025, a policy blueprint from the conservative Heritage Foundation that outlines how the next GOP administration could severely curtail abortion access. The campaign has also highlighted the stories of women who have had medical emergencies or had to leave their home state to receive care in the face of abortion bans.

Matt Bennett, a co-founder of left-center think tank Third Way, said the GOP’s efforts to downplay abortion “is a kind of desperate attempt to, you know, wave people's attention away from an issue that is very, very damaging for them. 

“Trump gave the Evangelicals what they wanted, which was a majority on the court that would overturn Roe and, and send this decision to states,” he said. “And what he did not reckon with was how radical the states would be, and how horrible the stories would be coming out of those states. … I mean, these are terrifying, and very real stories and the Republicans just somehow didn't see this coming and now it is a gigantic problem for them."