The Democratic Party’s embrace of the pro-choice label has spiked in recent years to a near-universal level while the share of Republicans and independent voters who embrace the moniker has essentially stayed the same.
The increasing pro-choice bent helps explain why pro-life Democrats are all but extinct on Capitol Hill and why Republicans running in blue states have ditched the pro-life movement.
Gallup tracking polls show the percentage of self-identified pro-choice Democrats has jumped to 86% from 70% in 2021 when President Biden was sworn into office.
The percentages of self-identified pro-choice Republicans and independents over that time essentially stayed the same at 23% and 52%, respectively.
The percentage of pro-life Democrats spiked to a record-breaking 88% in 2022, the year that the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
The percentage of Democrats who believe abortion should be legal under any circumstance has also climbed from 50% to 65% over the past five years. Again, independents (30%) and Republicans (12%) have been more set in stone over that period.
Mr. Biden and Democrats have been leaning into the abortion issue since the Supreme Court kicked the issue back to the states, blaming former President Donald Trump for opening the gates to stricter abortion rules across the nation.
The ruling has helped Democrats in recent elections.
It will be front and center in various races this fall, including in Florida and Arizona, where voters are expected to have the final say on abortion ballot questions.
At the same time, it has made it nearly impossible to be a pro-life Democrat.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, who has represented deep-red West Virginia, struggled to straddle that line after being raised as a pro-life Catholic. Mr. Manchin was the sole Democrat in 2022 to vote with Republicans to block legislation that sought to codify abortion rights into federal law.
He recently left the party to become an independent.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania first ran for the Senate as a proud pro-life Democrat.
Mr. Casey, however, has become a fairly reliable pro-abortion vote in Washington and is warning voters in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal up to 23 weeks of pregnancy, that Republicans want to limit those rights.
Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is considered the last pro-life Democrat in the House.
Mr. Cuellar is favored to win reelection but was indicted last month on charges of bribery, money laundering and illegally working on behalf of the Azerbaijani government. The case has been pushed until after the election.
Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, meanwhile, recently jumped aboard the pro-choice wagon in his race against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks for a Senate seat in deep-blue Maryland, a move political handicappers say he likely had to make to have any chance to win.
Mr. Hogan said he supports codifying the abortion rights that were protected under Roe v. Wade into federal law.
Asked whether he considered himself more in the pro-choice or pro-life camp, Mr. Hogan told The New York Times, “Given the definition of what I’m supporting — women’s rights to make their own decision — I would say that’s pro-choice.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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