Exclusive Audio: Karl Rove lays out Republican anti-abortion strategy

The GOP is framing extreme abortion bans as 'compromises'

In an interview at a major conference this week, Republican strategist Karl Rove laid out the GOP’s anti-abortion plan—repeating every single talking point I’ve been warning about for months. And thanks to an Abortion, Every Day reader who was in the room, we have an exclusive recording of exactly what he said.

Rove told interviewer Katie Couric that Americans need “sane, sensible people” to push for “an area where we have broad agreement”—which he defined as “a national consensus” for a ban somewhere between 10 and 14 weeks into pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and women’s health and life.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that ‘national consensus’ is the term Republicans are now using instead of ‘national ban’. They know that Americans overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans, and so conservatives have replaced the word with terms like ‘national consensus’ and ‘national standard’. It’s an attempt to distract people from the fact that they’re passing legislation that the vast majority of voters don’t want.

The big takeaway from Rove’s comments, however, is exactly what we’ve been worried and warning about these last few months: Republicans reframing their extreme abortion bans as compromises.

It’s an especially important move right now, in a moment when voters are deeply unhappy with anti-abortion laws. Republicans need to seem as if they’re conceding something. (There’s a reason, for example, that Rove used the word ‘settle’ four times in just two minutes.) That’s also why I’ve been so obsessive in writing about exceptions: They’re a way for the GOP to pretend as if they’ve given something up, while knowing that the legislative hurdles are too great for anyone to actually use the so-called allowances.

Rove relied on another dangerous tactic Abortion, Every Day predicted—the idea of extremes. Here’s what I wrote back in May:

“Republicans believe that if they paint abortion as a problem of extremes—an issue where both sides need to give a little—pretending to seek a reasonable middle-ground might save them from voters’ ire. (That’s also why we’re hearing so much from the Right about later abortions…they need to create an imaginary pro-choice extreme to counter the very real suffering their bans cause.)”

Compare that with what Rove said:

“[W]e're not gonna get there without going through a battle of extremists. One group saying, no abortions at all. And the other saying, no restrictions at all on any kind of abortion.”

We’re going to see a lot more of this kind of false equivalence as 2024 approaches, with a particular focus on abortions later in pregnancy (something I’ll be writing more about this week).

We know why Republicans are pushing the idea of a ‘compromise’: they’re losing. Plus, everything they’re framing as the middle ground is actually a win for the anti-abortion movement. That’s why we can’t allow voters to fall for it—or Democrats to cede ground. There’s no such thing as a compromise for our freedom, and there’s no possible way Republicans will stop at 12 or 15 weeks.

The good news is that we know exactly what they’re up to. The fact that Rove repeated these messages so fully and specifically means that our predictions are correct, and we know precisely where to focus next. Let’s take our wins where we can.