A Republican candidate in a tight House race is attempting to moderate his support for restriction on abortion — by using a strategy that comes straight from anti-abortion advocates, even as Republicans try to distance themselves from such groups.
Republicans across the country have tried to moderate their stance on abortion in 2024, repeatedly shifting their messaging as they struggle to navigate the topic: They’ve opposed a federal abortion ban, borrowed terminology from the abortion rights movement, tried to pivot the conversation to IVF and avoided talking about it. Pennsylvania state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is taking another path altogether.
Mackenzie, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, voted in support of a state bill that would have restricted abortion at 20 weeks in 2017. The bill didn’t pass, but in a public meet-and-greet in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, held last week, he said that such a restriction is not a “ban,” according to an audio recording from the event obtained by NOTUS.