Republicans are more united than they have been in years on a national strategy to roll back abortion rights, using state legislatures and the new GOP Congress to push for banning the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a platform that also has the backing of the party’s presidential candidates.

The cohesion comes at a significant time for Republicans, who have long fought among themselves over how hard to press new abortion restrictions, debating exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the life or health of the mother. Now, with Congress and two-thirds of state legislatures under GOP control, the party hopes the 20-week agenda offers a moment of unity while aligning Republicans with polls that show most Americans support such a ban.


That would be a welcome turnaround for Republicans after infamous stumbles into abortion land mines in recent years — most notably former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s claim in 2012 that women don’t get pregnant after “legitimate” rapes and comments by Richard Mourdock, a Republican Senate candidate in Indiana, implying that pregnancies after rapes were incidents “God intended to happen.” Democrats raised specters of these comments in 2014, though the attacks fell flat as some Republicans skirted talk of abortion by promoting contraception access, and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner had a pre-election change of heart on whether fertilized eggs should enjoy full human legal rights.

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Now Republicans want to go on offense with the 20-week ban, an easy-to-explain proposal they believe will animate their base without alienating swing voters who might be turned off by a frontal assault on Roe v. Wade. The 20th week — about halfway through a typical pregnancy — approaches the point when a fetus is viable outside the womb. It’s also the time at which anti-abortion activists maintain that unborn fetuses can feel pain.

“This is something we can all get together on,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who’s sponsoring the bill in the House with Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. “The truth is this bill is a deeply sincere effort to protect both mothers and their pain-capable unborn babies.”

White House hopefuls like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are also embracing the legislation. National Republican leaders believe the GOP’s focus on the 20-week ban could pay big dividends at the ballot box.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing. And I think that the politics of it, in my view, are changing around the country, too,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican. “If you define these issues the right way, I think you get to a point where you really do have good, strong public support.”

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Abortion-rights advocates say the proposal is more extreme than it sounds, calling it a significant assault on Roe and noting that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said no legitimate scientific information supports that idea that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks. And Republicans in many state legislatures continue to push even more aggressive efforts to whittle away at abortion rights, including with laws requiring ultrasounds, increased waiting periods and hospital-like construction standards for abortion clinics.

But abortion foes say the 20-week bill is more politically palatable than more divisive proposals that would roll back Roe entirely. And they’re increasingly optimistic now that Republicans control the House, Senate and a historic number of state legislatures.

Their first salvo will come from the House, where GOP leaders plan to vote on a federal 20-week abortion ban on Jan. 22. That’s the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade and falls on the same day as the March for Life, an annual mass demonstration of anti-abortion activists on the streets of Washington.

That timing came at the urging of nearly a dozen prominent anti-abortion groups that met with Republican leaders in November, many of whom had spent big on Republican Senate and House candidates.

Republicans will probably send mostly female House members to the floor to debate the bill, according to sources familiar with the process. That could head off incidents like a 2013 floor debate on an earlier 20-week bill, in which Franks caused an uproar by arguing that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.” Republican leaders pulled Franks from that debate and replaced him with Blackburn, while adding a rape exception to the bill.

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The current House language includes exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Leaders won’t be able to move as quickly in the Senate, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is committed to eventually holding a vote on the proposal after Democratic leader Harry Reid ignored it last year, according to aides and GOP senators. The goal is to vote on the measure sometime in the spring.

And eight major potential Republican presidential hopefuls are on board with the national ban, cementing the party’s abortion plank long before primary season. Besides Bush and Paul, that list includes Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, Govs. Mike Pence of Indiana and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Huckabee and Bush are the two candidates who have taken the most concrete steps toward running.

All eight have written to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) supporting his version of the 20-week bill, often touting their own anti-abortion credentials.

“As a committed pro-life American, I believe this legislation is an important step towards protecting our nation’s unborn children,” Santorum wrote in a letter obtained by POLITICO. “I have long led the fight to stop abortions.”

Meanwhile the ranks of states that have 20-week abortion bans is expected to grow after the midterms left the GOP controlling two-thirds of state legislatures and 31 governors’ offices. Activists are bullish that Republicans will press forward on those proposals in Wisconsin, West Virginia and South Carolina, expanding on the 13 states that have approved similar proposals.

Americans are split evenly between supporters and opponents of abortion rights according to a Gallup poll in 2014. But 60 percent of Americans support the 20-week ban, according to Quinnipiac, and Democrats are evenly divided on that specific proposal.

All told, the 20-week ban is a proposal that anti-abortion activists believe could realistically become national law in the near future under a Republican president — part of what Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser calls a “sideways march to victory” for the movement.

Even though it’s unlikely to become federal law without a supermajority in the Senate and with President Barack Obama in the White House, advocates believe it’s time to go on offense.

“The danger would be to do nothing,” Dannenfelser said. “That’s the biggest danger. The danger is that you don’t move on a very popular common-ground issue, you don’t exploit your advantage.”

Added Blackburn: “This is a bill that most people agree with us on, male and female. Once you have a fetus that is capable of feeling pain, that unborn child deserves protection.”

National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill dismissed that argument, calling the rhetoric surrounding the legislation misleading and saying it amounts to overturning “ Roe v. Wade completely, period.”

“If you say ‘viability,’ that’s the time where a fetus can live independently outside of the womb. That’s 24 to 26 weeks. But most people don’t know that,” O’Neill said. “So when you just say, ‘Oh, do you want to ban abortion at 20 weeks?’ People go ‘Yeah, that’s really late!’ No, it’s not. And most people don’t know that it’s not late.”

Putting abortion legislation on the floor also has the potential to spark internal GOP arguments that Congress is not going far enough for some conservatives. Franks said he would like to push things further but that incremental progress makes far more sense for Republicans now in the driver’s seat on Capitol Hill.

That’s not going to stop Democrats from using the proposed ban to further their political argument that Republicans are waging a war on woman. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) criticized regulation of abortion as outside the scope of Congress’ duties.

“The role of Congress should not be to deny women a medical procedure that they have decided with their physician is the right course of action,” DeLauro said. “What Congress should be doing is working every day to reduce unintended pregnancies and keep women healthy.”

In the House, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opted to tie the upcoming vote to the March for Life event after meeting with leading anti-abortion groups and Republicans who have long been vocal opponents of abortion. McCarthy met in November with a dozen conservative groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Susan B. Anthony List, and “reiterated his commitment to the pro-life movement and vowed to ensure that the House of Representatives would be in session and voting during the 2015 March for Life,” a GOP staffer said.

The legislation is assured of passing the House in January, but in the Senate it’s likely to fall short of the necessary 60 votes, even if Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana join with Republicans. Graham said that when the Senate takes up his bill, “there will be some bipartisan support. I don’t know if we’ll get to 60, but we’ll get over 50.”

Manchin is likely to vote for the bill, one source said, though he won’t co-sponsor the bill or publicly urge a vote on it. Donnelly’s office declined to respond to questions about his position.

But Republican unity could be a tougher test. Four Republican senators didn’t sign onto Graham’s bill the first time around, including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Dean Heller of Nevada. Heller now says he “may or may not support” a 20-week ban but sees no reason to make it a priority.

“I’m pro-life, but we have a libertarian streak back in Nevada,” Heller said. He added that abortion lawmaking is “important to some people, and I recognize that and respect that, but I’m here on economic issues.”

Kirk, up for reelection in a blue state in 2016, was more forceful and said he’s sure to vote against the bill. He’s one of seven GOP senators up for reelection in states Obama won, all of whom will face scrutiny on their positions on social issues as topics like abortion hit the Senate floor.

“I’ve been supporting a woman’s right to choose throughout my time in public life,” Kirk said. “[I want to] make sure that we don’t overturn Roe v. Wade and make sure that decision rests with each American woman.”

Even so, Dannenfelser says getting lawmakers on the record would be important progress after years of being stifled by Reid’s majority. And she’s not resigned to the legislation facing broad opposition from congressional Democrats forever.

“It’s going to start to cut in to just your regular old Democrat,” she said.

For now, though, Democrats still see an advantage portraying Republicans as extreme on women’s health issues — and believe that ultimately, Americans don’t want members of Congress deciding abortion policy.

“Whose decision is this to make?” asked Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, chairman of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. “Is this my decision in Washington, D.C.? Or is this up to a woman, in concert with her family and her minister, to make the decision? Which is where it should be.”

So members of Congress shouldn’t be writing abortion law? Tester responded: “Amen.”

Kendall Breitman contributed to this report.