Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday criticized fellow Republicans who have gone squishy on abortion since the pro-life movement suffered some recent setbacks, despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
The Florida Republican released a memo entitled “A Winning Pro-life Strategy” that called on GOP lawmakers and candidates to promote policies that “make it easier and more affordable” for mothers to opt for life over abortion.
Rubio noted that since the landmark decision reversing Roe, and turning abortion policy over to the states, support for abortion has shot up.
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Democrats, the senator observed, “have accelerated the change by painting apocalyptic visions of what a supposedly pro-life future would look like.”
“Key to their strategy has been peddling disinformation that pro-life laws criminalize treatments for miscarriage, stillbirth, and ectopic pregnancy. The Democrats’ message of fear and control has resonated with voters,” he added.
Since the end of Roe, the pro-life movement has posted a “perfect record of failure,” said Rubio, noting that in its wake, all seven pro-life ballot initiatives proposed at the state level have lost.
While “mitigating circumstances” surround each defeat, “This string of losses is nonetheless a check engine light for the pro-life movement. We should heed it,” Rubio said. The issue is that Democrats “largely control the narrative about abortion, and that means they control the narrative about us and our policies.”
By doing so, Democrats escape accountability from “voters’ deep unease about abortion and revulsion at such barbaric practices as late-term abortion,” he added. Without changing that narrative, the GOP faces even more losses.
He offered three key strategies to change the equation.
First, support mothers and babies.
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Rubio challenged Republicans to get behind policies that are truly pro-life after birth. This includes supporting things like paid parental leave, enhanced child-support enforcement, and a bigger federal child income tax credit.
“Our end goal of building a ‘culture of life’ requires more than laws limiting abortion; it requires adequate support systems so that mothers can reject abortion and choose life,” Rubio argued.
Secondly, hammer Democrats for their extremism.
“Democrats support taxpayer-funded abortion, for any reason, up until the moment of birth—and in some cases, even after a child is born. This is not an exaggeration,” said Rubio, noting that almost all Democrats in Congress have backed the Women’s Health Protection Act.
That measure would eliminate virtually all restrictions on abortion, up to the moment of birth.
“Democrats resist even the most basic protections for babies, such as legislation requiring abortion providers to render medical aid to infants who survive surgical late-term abortions,” Rubio wrote.
“Democrats cloak their support for abortion in euphemisms like ‘reproductive choice’ because they want desperately to avoid a discussion about what abortion is: the deliberate taking of a human life,” said Rubio. “If Democrats are forced to talk honestly, they will lose. … But if we shy away from the reality of abortion with silence or euphemism of our own, then the supporters of abortion have already won.”
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Finally, protecting the unborn.
Pro-lifers must recall that “protecting unborn human beings is the moral center and purpose of our movement—and we cannot be shy about saying so.”
“No pro-life strategy deserves the name without advocating just limits on abortion,” he continued. We need to navigate this difficult terrain with sympathy, without abandoning the deeply moral mission of protecting the unborn.”
He pointed out that some European nations, which are viewed as more liberal than America on this issue, actually “have far stronger limits on abortion than the average blue state.”
Besides banning the procedure, they also have enacted policies that mandate doctors to counsel women seeking abortions about its risks and provide them information about alternatives like adoption.
“If Republicans cannot go at least as far in limiting abortion as Europe, then truly we have failed our voters and do not deserve to be described as a pro-life party,” he stated.
“This moment is an opportunity for Republicans to refocus and remember who we are. Our party believes in the dignity of the human person, the importance of family, and the unalienable right to life,” Rubio concluded.
“There is no cause that unites those beliefs more perfectly, and that motivates tens of millions of our party’s supporters more fully, than the pro-life cause. We have a responsibility to advocate effectively for that cause.”
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