Marco Rubio’s Courageous Stand for Life

T he latest attack ad from Val Demings, the Democratic congresswoman challenging Marco Rubio in Florida’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, levels a broadside against Rubio for being . . . ideologically consistent on abortion. One would think that, given his twelve years in the Senate, it would be easy for his opponent to find a few out-of-context clips of Rubio that could portray him as a frothing-at-the-mouth woman-hater on the issue. But the Demings ad has the opposite effect. The three clips of Rubio in the 58-second video, played over an ominous-sounding background track, show the Florida Republican arguing for such extreme positions as: “Just on legal fronts, I believe Roe v. Wade is not constitutionally solid”; “I just believe with all my heart that if you’re not a society that gives precedence to life above every other right, then you’re headed in a very dangerous direction”; and “I believe that human life is valuable irrespective of the circumstances of its creation, and deserves the protection of our law.” Quelle horreur!

Whatever other criticisms one might make of Rubio, the senator has been something of a model when it comes to the pro-life cause. His consistency on the issue has been impeccable — he currently enjoys an A+ rating on the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America scorecard. He led the way on introducing a comprehensive legislative package to support mothers in a post-Roe America, providing a powerful rebuttal to the spurious pro–abortion rights accusation that pro-lifers “don’t care about babies after they’re born.” (Rubio’s package includes, among other things, a fully-refundable adoption tax credit, an expansion of the child tax credit, and a budget-neutral paid parental leave bill.) On messaging, his rhetoric has been consistently reasonable, empathetic, and convincing, as evidenced by the Demings campaign’s inability to patch together even remotely damning clips. And rather than shy away from discussing abortion, as some other Republicans have, he’s taken the fight to the Democrats, highlighting their radicalism rather than hedging or equivocating about his own views.

https://twitter.com/danholler/status/1570083093523927043

This isn’t always good politics. In fact, Rubio’s recent decision to be one of the first co-sponsors of Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R., S.C.) 15-week federal abortion ban is arguably politically imprudent. (As of this writing, the only other co-sponsor of Graham’s bill is Montana’s Steve Daines.) But it is admirable.

For a state that’s increasingly red and with full Republican control, Florida is unusually pro–abortion rights. The state’s abortion rate is nearly double the national average, and is currently the third-highest in the country, behind only New York and Illinois. By polling, it is arguably the most pro-choice Republican-controlled state in the country: A 2018 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll found that 56 percent of Floridians believed that abortion should be legal in most or all cases — the only state in the South other than Virginia (51 percent) where a majority of residents said the same. It’s notable, in this context, that the post-Roe abortion restrictions that Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed were unusually permissive as compared with red-state bans, setting the limit for legal abortion at 15 weeks — the vast majority of abortions occur before that point — rather than the six-week or outright bans signed into law by many other Republican governors. (And DeSantis has yet to say what specific further restrictions he would support in the future.)

It’s not surprising, then, that Demings has been hammering Rubio for his consistent pro-life advocacy. She’s launched numerous ads attacking her opponent on abortion throughout the campaign, and she took to Twitter to attack the proposed 15-week ban soon after it was announced. These hits could be having an effect. While Rubio has consistently led in the polls, and is still the favorite to win, Demings has begun to close the gap. An AARP poll released earlier this month, conducted by a partnership of Republican and Democratic firms, put Demings just two points behind Rubio, well within the margin of error. A Washington Times report, headlined “Florida Senate race suddenly looks risky for Marco Rubio,” called it a possible “toss-up,” as “a string of polls shows Mrs. Demings has nearly closed what many thought would be an insurmountable gap in Florida, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 250,000 voters.”

But in light of all that, Rubio’s decision to stand for life is all the more courageous. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again on this issue, because it’s so fundamental, life,” he told a group of Christian clergy earlier this month. “I would rather be right and lose an election than wrong.”

Republicans could learn a thing or two about backbone — and about choosing the morally righteous position over the politically expedient one — from Rubio, at least on the issue of abortion. Many members of Rubio’s party who aren’t facing reelection races in 2022 — let alone difficult ones — and represent much more solidly pro-life constituencies have balked on abortion since the overturning of Roe, choosing to discuss other issues and saying that abortion should be left to the states. Of course, there are legitimate constitutional arguments for abortion federalism — as NR’s internal debate on the matter has demonstrated — but the Republicans shying away from the issue of protecting life are motivated by politics, not principle. “I don’t think there’s an appetite for a national platform here,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) — who represents a state that is ten points less friendly to abortion than Florida, according to the 2018 PRRI poll — told Politico after the release of Graham’s proposed ban. “I’m not sure what he’s thinking here. But I don’t think there will be a rallying around that concept. I don’t think there’s much of an appetite to go that direction.”

For nearly a half century, Republicans have been promising their voters that they would work to end the gruesome practice of abortion in this country. No one said it would be easy, let alone always politically expedient. The point was — and is — that it is just. Rubio, it seems, actually meant what he said. When he told his constituents that he stood for life, he was telling the truth. It’s not clear that the same could be said of many of his ostensibly pro-life colleagues.