Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.

At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.

The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that “pro-life” no longer resonated with voters.

“What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions … at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the polling made it clear to him that more specificity is needed in talking about abortion.

“Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and ‘pro-choice’ now can mean any number of things. So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels, that they’ve shifted. So if you’re going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific,” Hawley said Thursday.

  • jmcs
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    1 year ago

    Especially since in reality they are pro-birth only, they don’t care about providing adequate pre-natal care to all pregnant women, they don’t believe that safe birth conditions are a basic right, and they lose all the interest in the kids’ well being as soon as they are out.

    It’s almost like they are only doing it to control women or something. /s

    • Alto@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      “Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”
      ― George Carlin

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Thank you. I’ve been saying that about pre-natal care for years. Really, they are not even pro-birth because if you want to give birth under safe hospital conditions, that’s on you and your insurance company, if you have one.

      They’re not pro-anything except punishing women.

      • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Hey now that’s not true, they are also pro punishing the non-whites, LGBTQ+ folks, non-Christians, and the poors(everyone who isn’t worth over a few million)

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is the first time I’m confused by the sarcasm tag….

      Is the tag itself the sarcastic bit?

      • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The sarcasm is that they’re pretending to not know/just be coming to the realization that conservatives are misogynistic hypocrites.

    • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ironically, they don’t care about the life after it’s birthed. Do they support free breakfast and lunch at public schools? Hell no they don’t.