The vote might enable Gress to remain competitive in his Phoenix-area district for the November election, though he risks alienating ardent pro-life voters, says Marcus Dell’Artino, an Arizona GOP strategist.
And Gress is not the only self-described pro-life Republican changing his tune. Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, who once said that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who access abortion, has shied away from embracing a federal abortion ban, punting the issue to the states and indicating that, if elected, he would not block local prosecutors from regulating abortion. Arizona GOP senate candidate Kari Lake has also repeatedly shifted her stance in recent weeks. Lake once called the procedure an “ultimate sin” but recently described the ban as out of touch. (She also complained when the state’s Democratic attorney general vowed not to enforce the ban.)
While Republicans struggle to get on the same page, one thing is clear: Abortion is not an issue candidates in competitive races are eager to address this election cycle.
In Arizona, absent the 1864 ban, a 15-week ban is in place—though pro-choice advocates are moving to propose a ballot measure that would ensure abortion access up to about 24 weeks, making exceptions to save the life or protect the health of the mother.
But even though Republicans like Gress sided with the pro-choice bloc in the vote this spring, Democrats will not show them any mercy in the long run, says Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. Hawkins, who backs a federal abortion ban, believes it’s a fool’s errand for Republicans to go after pro-choice voters.
“We are not living in a world where we can find a lot of agreement across the aisle,” she says. “In this political climate, voters want to know that you’re with them and that you’re not going to betray them.” Democrats are not going to suddenly go easy on Republicans in campaign ads, for example, just because of one pro-choice vote, she adds. “Democrats hold their ground. They are ideologues when it comes to the issue of abortion. Anyone who thinks there’s common ground on that is at a happy-hour party in Washington, DC, flirting with the 20-year-old interns.”