WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A key national pro-life group released polling Feb. 19 it said shows a potential failure by the Trump administration to act on pro-life policy priorities may demotivate Republican primary voters in the upcoming midterm elections.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, has previously called on the Trump administration to safeguard the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion, and to reinstate stronger restrictions on mifepristone, a pill commonly, but not exclusively, used for early abortion. She argued in comments to reporters on a press call, “We have been warning the GOP and the administration for months” that “the failure to rein in abortion drugs risks base enthusiasm this November.”
‘You cannot win without your base’
“You cannot win midterm elections without your base,” Dannenfelser said. “If you’re a D.C. reporter, you don’t need to be told that, but let’s just say it again. You cannot win without your base. You can’t bring together that handful of votes in battlegrounds that are required. Now the abortion drug problem is an electoral problem in addition to a moral problem in our nation, and it’s caused by the lack of leadership at HHS, Secretary Kennedy, and it has to be addressed.”
Dannefelser pointed to data showing that 79% of Republican primary voters — a segment of the party’s base considered reliable voters in a midterm election cycle — support the Hyde Amendment, while 80% said they believe the FDA should require in-person visits for abortion drugs.
John Rogers, senior partner and pollster at Cygnal, wrote in a memo circulated by SBA that the national survey of Republican primary voters showed 32% said they would be “less enthusiastic about voting in the November midterm election if GOP leaders abandon pro-life policies.”
HHS ‘facilitating’ access to mifepristone
“Only 20% of GOP primary voters know that abortion numbers have increased post-Dobbs,” the memo said. “But when informed that 1.1 million abortions occur annually (an increase since Roe was overturned), 73% find this concerning. Republican voters likely expected that Dobbs would lead to fewer abortions and certainly expected that the leaders around President Trump would work hard to extend pro-life protections everywhere possible in the federal government. Instead, under (Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), HHS is actively facilitating access to the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.”
Rogers argued in the memo, “A diminution in enthusiasm among one-third of the Republican base would be devastating in close U.S. House and U.S. Senate races in November.”
Dannenfelser is among the pro-life leaders that criticized Trump’s recent comments to House Republicans telling them to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies — to the disappointment of pro-life groups that have long supported that policy.
A promised safety review
Trump’s comments came after the FDA, which operates under HHS, notified the drug manufacturer Evita Solutions in September that its generic version of mifepristone was approved, despite previous indications from FDA and HHS officials that mifepristone would undergo a safety review. On its website, Evita Solutions calls mifepristone “an effective, safe way to terminate early pregnancy.”
But Dannefelser pointed to the survey’s finding that 72% of respondents said they oppose the FDA’s decision to approve a new generic mifepristone before completing the safety review Kennedy promised.
In December, the White House rejected a call from SBA to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary after a news report that he slow-walked a promised safety review of mifepristone, arguing a “Gold Standard Science study of mifepristone” was underway.
‘Not a scientific approach’
“‘We’re going to do good science’ is basically the reaction that we’re getting,” Dannenfelser said. “Of course, everyone believes in science, but science is not contained in the idea that you’re going to wait till after midterms. That is not a scientific approach to this.”
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. After the Dobbs decision, Church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother and child, and they have called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can increase the risk of abortion.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
