GOP campaign consultant Kellyanne Conway urged Republicans to stop highlighting that their Democratic opponents support unfettered abortions of unborn babies, suggesting instead that Republicans focus on consensus.
Conway laid out an abortion-related political strategy Wednesday during Politico’s Health Care Summit, at which she also touched on her support for both TikTok and in vitro fertilization.
Conway emphasized that she is “100% pro-life” and encouraged Democratic lawmakers and commentators to “stop being science-deniers” and “stop pretending you don’t know what you see on a sonogram.” She pointed out that Americans, when polled more granularly on abortion, are both supportive of abortion exceptions and supportive of protecting unborn babies that can feel pain.
But Conway, who formerly served as Donald Trump’s senior adviser, also said that she does not encourage Republicans to point out that their opponents support abortion up until birth—though the Democratic Party and most Democratic politicians have repeatedly refused to specify any protections for the unborn that they would support.
“Notice how I did not say, and counsel clients against saying, ‘Democrats are for abortion up until the moment of birth.’ You know why that’s not the best way to say it?” she asked. “Nobody knows anybody … who is about to give birth and says ‘You know what? I don’t really like stretch marks. I’m not really ready to have another person in my life. I changed my mind.’ Nobody knows anybody like that.”
Conway then went on to imply that Trump was speaking metaphorically when he said to failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: “If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.”
“That’s sort of a metaphor for who is really extreme here, and people reflexively said, ‘Oooh, could that be true?’ And I think it changed a lot of the conversation,” Conway explained.
She did not immediately respond to a request for further comment for this article.
Conway’s remarks conflict with the strategies of prominent pro-life groups, such as the Susan B. Anthony List, which encourage Republicans to highlight Democratic extremism on abortion.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., similarly urged Republicans, in a January memo first reported by The Daily Signal, to engage a three-pronged approach: to fight for a pro-family agenda, to highlight Democratic extremism on the issue, and to tell the truth about the horrors of abortion.
He also emphasized to his colleagues that Republicans have the moral high ground on the issue, one that deals with the killing of an unborn child.
“Pro-lifers should recall that protecting unborn human beings is the moral center and purpose of our movement—and we cannot be shy about saying so,” he noted. “No pro-life strategy deserves the name without advocating just limits on abortion.”
“This moment is an opportunity for Republicans to refocus and remember who we are,” he wrote. “Our party believes in the dignity of the human person, the importance of family, and the unalienable right to life. There is no cause that unites those beliefs more perfectly, and that motivates tens of millions of our party’s supporters more fully, than the pro-life cause. We have a responsibility to advocate effectively for that cause.”
At a different point in the Wednesday conversation, Politico’s Ryan Lizza asked Conway: “How do you advise a Republican candidate who genuinely says … ‘I believe an embryo is a human life’?”
“I know a few people like that,” Conway responded. “I don’t know many. I know you always want them to be the rule, not the exception … .”
“You don’t know anyone who believes that life starts at conception?” interrupted Lizza.
“I know many people who believe that, you’re talking about embryos,” she continued, before he pressed: “You don’t know anyone who believes embryos are a human life? That’s a very common position in the pro-life movement.”
She later said that she would advise a candidate who believes life begins at conception to say, “I am pro-life, and here is what that means,” before emphasizing the importance of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as “our first rights.”
Conway also encouraged GOP candidates to talk about close family members and friends who are pro-abortion, and to highlight the abortion exceptions that they personally support.
“You show me your exceptions,” she encouraged Republicans to say to Democrats, “And I’ll show you mine.”
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