Deflecting the blame from himself for the Republicans’ midterm underperformance, Donald Trump asserted that “the ‘abortion issue’” was to blame, “poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother, that lost large numbers of voters.”
A number of strategists and politicians on both sides of the aisle share this view: The pro-life movement is an albatross around the neck of the GOP. With some combination of ignorance, malice, and motivated reasoning, these observers propose that Republicans should sideline the issue and trot out abortion-related talking points only when strictly necessary to retain the pro-life vote.
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