Republican senators are looking for alternative terminology for the term pro-life after polling reportedly showed the phrase does not resonate with voters, according to NBC News.
The senators attended a meeting headed by Steven Law from the Senate Leadership Fund Super PAC Wednesday where they discussed polling, which was not released publicly, that found voters are interpreting the term “pro-life” as someone who is against all abortions in any circumstances, according to NBC. Several senators who attended the meeting told NBC Thursday that this new information meant that the party needed to be more clear when discussing the issue of abortion with voters. (RELATED: ‘Patterns Of Censorship’: Meta’s Oversight Board Rules That Company Stifled Speech By Removing Posts About Abortion)
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told NBC that “you can’t assume that everybody knows what it means” because “they probably don’t.”
“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,” Hawley said. “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.”
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questions Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, during Senate Judiciary Committee on data security at Twitter, on Capitol Hill, September 13, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Abortion is banned in Missouri following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade. The law currently only has exceptions for medical emergencies but pro-abortion advocates are pushing to get legislation on the ballot to create more exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.
The polling also reportedly showed that the term pro-life doesn’t register with voters either, according to NBC. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said that he was “intrigued” that people have begun to assign different meanings to both terms.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said that the meeting was focused on “pro-baby policies” but noted that the phrase “was just a term of my creation to demonstrate my concern for babies” and not necessarily a potential new identifier for the party, according to NBC. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming appeared to agree with Hawley, saying that the issue requires “more in-depth discussions.”
“People require more in-depth discussions; you can’t get away with a label anymore,” Lummis said, according to NBC. “What we’ve learned is you have to dive in and talk to people about very specifically where you are on that subject if you’re running for public office.”
North Dakota, Indiana and Wyoming all have laws on the books that bans abortions after six weeks, but Wyoming is currently awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit after pro-abortion advocates sued, claiming the law was unconstitutional and a judge placed a temporary injunction on the law, according to NPR.
The Senate Leadership Fund, Hawley, Young, Cramer and Lummis did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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