There's No Such Thing as 'Pro-Life' Feminism

12.17.24

I don’t usually dedicate a whole newsletter to one issue, but what’s happening with anti-abortion strategy requires as much today. Despite their November wins, Republicans know that they’ve lost Americans on abortion rights—and that the issue continues to be Democrats’ most powerful weapon. It’s not just that 81% of Americans believe that the government shouldn’t be involved in abortion at all—which is incredible enough on its own—but that support for abortion is spiking in Republican stronghold states like Tennessee.

Conservatives know that these kinds of numbers will make it very, very difficult for them to enact their anti-abortion agenda under the new administration without voter backlash. Whether it’s federal policies like Comstock or just run-of-the-mill anti-abortion legislation in the states, Republicans need to tell Americans a new story that goes beyond ‘abortion is murder.’

Enter conservative strategist Heather Higgins, CEO of Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), and her latest column at Fox News. As much as I hate linking to Fox, the piece is actually a super helpful look into what we can expect from anti-abortion messaging in 2025.

First, what’s important to know about Higgins is that she works specifically on making Republicans’ misogyny more palatable to women voters. If you go to IWV’s website, for example, you’ll see things like an anti-trans petition framed as the “Stand Up For Sisterhood Petition.” And after Roe was overturned, internal IWV memos were leaked outlining a strategy to use feminist language to downplay the negative impact of abortion bans. (Remember this absolutely bonkers ad? That’s her.)

Higgins is also a powerful player who Republican politicians listen to. You may recall that GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell considered moving away from the term ‘pro-life’ after being presented with polling that revealed it no longer resonated with voters. That, too, was Higgins.

All of which is to say—she’s worth paying attention to.

In her Fox column, Higgins digs deeper into the idea that ‘pro-life’ has a “toxic brand/perception”—largely because Americans see it as “support for only the fetus, not the woman.” Which is…correct! (I mean, really, it’s hard to claim otherwise when you have Republicans arguing in front of a federal court that women should be legally forced to lose limbs and organs before getting an abortion.)

Higgins also suggests that part of the reason Republicans won in November is because they listened to her abortion messaging advice: She lauds Donald Trump for talking frequently about ‘exceptions,’ and other Republicans for claiming to oppose a national abortion ban.

It’s JD Vance, though, that Higgins points to as the perfect messenger for Republicans’ new and improved abortion rhetoric. In fact, she even lays out exactly what Vance said during the vice presidential debate that the GOP should treat as their talking point gospel:

• Vance never used the terms ‘pro-life’, ‘ban,’ or talked about “killing babies.”

• He “reassur[ed] women” that Republicans don’t want “to make every state look like Alabama.”

• “He began with empathy, not politics or policy, telling the story of a woman he loves who had an abortion that she felt saved her life.”

• Vance “used the high-ground, pro-woman argument: we need to give women control (affordability, family planning/contraception/fertility treatments)” and “reclaim[ed] freedom and talked about childcare and fertility.”

In other words, she wants Republicans to sound pro-choice. Otherwise known as lying. This is exactly what I’ve been warning about for months: That conservatives’ abortion messaging strategy for the new administration would focus on pretending to be as pro-choice as possible.

We’ve already seen what this looks like in action. It’s Republican politicians framing their funding of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers as “support for women and families”—a way to feign caring about women even as they strip away our rights. Or conservatives’ cultural campaign against birth control, in which they dispatch ‘wellness’ or ‘tradwife’ creators to weaponize the very real issue of medical sexism to sow distrust in hormonal contraception.

It’s Donald Trump telling voters he’s giving abortion back to the “will of the people,” or crisis pregnancy centers claiming that Democrats regulating them are attacking women’s “right to choose.” It’s the shamelessness, over and over. For example, during a debate this year, New York Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro looked at the camera to speak to women directly on abortion: “I absolutely respect the decision you make, and I want that decision to rest between you and a physician, not Washington, D.C.” It’s a soundbite more at home in a women’s studies classroom!

While all of this rhetoric is dishonest, nothing beats what we saw conservatives do with ballot measures—the one in Nebraska, in particular:

Republicans' Fake Ballot Measures

For those who need a refresher: Nebraska had two abortion-related measures on the ballot in November—one to protect abortion rights until ‘viability’ and another that would codify the state’s 12-week abortion ban. That latter measure was launched with the specific goal of tricking voters; conservatives figured they could siphon voters from the real pro-choice measure by lying about what their amendment would actually do.

So they picked a name that was near-identical to the pro-choice campaign, and the anti-abortion activists collecting signatures told Nebraskans that they’d be signing in support of abortion rights.

This wasn’t some random or last-minute tactic: A funding analysis from the Associated Press found that anti-abortion activists spent nearly as much in Nebraska as they did in Florida. They were testing out just how successful the strategy could be. Given that the anti-abortion measure won, I’m guessing that they got their answer—and that we’ll be seeing more attempts to fool voters.

To be clear, conservatives co-opting feminist language is nothing new. You only need to look at organizations with names like “Feminists for Life” or “Independent Women’s Forum” to know that. And in some ways, this strategy has been a long time coming: Over the last ten years or so, anti-abortion activists have gone from calling women murderers to saying that women ‘deserve better’ than abortion.

Don’t get me wrong, plenty of them still call women killers, but that’s not where the mainstream groups are anymore. At least, not publicly. These organizations may be working hard to sound feminist and woman-friendly, but they haven’t changed their beliefs, policies or extremism. They’ve simply dressed it up nicer.

That’s why this strategy is an easy one to dismantle, if we’re willing to do the work. It’s easy to make fun of anti-abortion groups using feminist language. Because they are, of course, ridiculous. But we need to stop taking for granted the idea that everyone else understands the same.

We’re in a moment when some of the most powerful creators with the biggest female audiences are partnering with billionaire-backed anti-birth control campaigns. A moment when the majority of white women once again voted for Trump because they believed his lie about leaving abortion to the states. We’re not in a position where we can roll our eyes, mock the misogynists declaring themselves feminists, and call it a day.

What we can do is get specific. I think often of the exchange that Sen. Patty Murray had with Christina Francis, president of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) at the Senate HELP Committee meeting on abortion rights this year. AAPLOG likes to send out Francis and their other emissaries as credible medical professionals who are deeply concerned about women’s health. But because Murray honed in on narrow questions—asking Francis whether she believed IUDs and emergency contraception were actually abortifacients, for example—that mask fell quickly.

It was impossible for Francis to paint herself as a champion for women with Murray reminding Americans that she believes abortion is never necessary to save a person’s life, or that her group wants to deny women care who’ve had massive placental abruptions.

That’s the kind of relentless, specific questioning and information we need to bring to the entire anti-abortion movement. Not just in state houses or on the floors of Congress, but in newspapers, cable news interviews, university speaking events and even TikTok debates.

Make these people say the truth out loud—and make sure Americans hear it. (Getting them on video helps.) Because for all their talking point bullshit, anti-abortion activists are proud of what they believe in. They’re eager to take away women’s rights. And their feminist disguise won’t withstand the scrutiny of their own words.