From left to proper: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican applicants proceed to be pressed on abortion rights at the marketing campaign path.

Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs; Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs; Scott Olson/Getty Photographs; Justin Sullivan/Getty Photographs

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Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs; Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs; Scott Olson/Getty Photographs; Justin Sullivan/Getty Photographs

From left to proper: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican applicants proceed to be pressed on abortion rights at the marketing campaign path.

Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs; Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs; Scott Olson/Getty Photographs; Justin Sullivan/Getty Photographs

Possibly no factor is thornier for the 2024 Republican presidential number one applicants than abortion.

Republicans broadly cheered the 2022 Ultimate Courtroom determination, Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being, that overturned Roe v. Wade. However since then, they have got discovered that going too a long way on abortion restrictions is usually a political legal responsibility.

The Dobbs determination and next state-level rules proscribing abortion get right of entry to galvanized electorate who reinforce abortion rights. Each and every state poll measure on abortion rights since Dobbs has pop out in desire of abortion rights, even in crimson states like Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.

On best of that, the GOP’s opposition to abortion rights has been blamed for Republican underperformance within the 2022 midterms, and November’s elections in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.

Consequently, Republican presidential applicants are making an attempt a balancing act: find out how to attraction to a birthday celebration base that, to various levels, opposes abortion rights, with out alienating moderates, independents and normal election electorate who desire fewer restrictions. The outcome has been many vast statements about “protective existence,” with out lots of specifics about precisely what restrictions applicants desire.

As an example, former President Donald Trump, the main Republican candidate, has dodged the query of whether or not he helps a federal abortion ban, to not point out what sort of gestational limits he helps.

In the meantime, Democrats see protective abortion rights now not best as an ethical crucial however so as to power electorate to the polls in 2024. Abortion rights advocates are running to position measures protective get right of entry to to the process onto ballots in 2024 in different swing states, within the hopes of energizing electorate.

President Biden hasn’t ever been a passionate crusader for abortion rights. However since Dobbs, he has been extra prepared to marketing campaign at the factor. The query is how a lot it continues to power electorate in 2024, and to what stage different problems – considerations in regards to the financial system, Biden and Trump’s age, overseas conflicts – take over the dialog.

Does the candidate reinforce a federal abortion ban?

The top-profile query on abortion that applicants face is whether or not they would again a federal abortion ban. Sooner than he dropped out of the race, former Vice President Mike Pence challenged his competition to signal directly to a 15-week federal ban, and several other did. (Applicants have given a variety of solutions on what number of weeks the cutoff for this sort of ban could be; this is addressed in any other phase under.)

Trump has been in particular evasive at the query, on the other hand. He has been requested a couple of federal ban a number of instances, and whilst he hasn’t ever mentioned “no” outright, he has additionally frequently refused to again a federal abortion ban.

That mentioned, he as soon as did again a federal ban – throughout the 2016 marketing campaign, he promised to signal a 20-week federal ban if it got here to his table as president, and in 2018, President Trump driven Congress to move this sort of ban.

So what gestational limits, if any, does the candidate reinforce?

Since Dobbs, states have handed various rules about how a lot to limit abortion, giving applicants many alternatives to both reward or criticize a variety of restrictions. As well as, one of the crucial applicants signed abortion bans as governors or supported restrictions as legislators. Underneath are the more than a few ranges of abortion restrictions that applicants both these days reinforce or have supported up to now.

Does the candidate reinforce restrictions on drugs abortion?

Previous to the Dobbs determination, drugs abortion accounted for a majority of all abortions within the U.S. Since Dobbs, abortion rights activists were serving to sufferers, together with the ones in states with tight restrictions, get get right of entry to to the tablets utilized in those abortions – misoprostol and mifepristone. One manner is to ship the tablets to sufferers throughout the mail. In reaction, some states have handed rules making an attempt to restrict get right of entry to to these tablets.

The president has some energy to limit or enlarge get right of entry to to the tablets – Biden, as an example, signed an govt order in early 2023 that safe get right of entry to to drugs abortion by way of telehealth appointments, and that still allowed pharmacies to distribute the tablets.

As president, Trump driven to limit drugs abortion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Ultimate Courtroom to require sufferers to discuss with a doctor in an effort to obtain the drugs.

The applicants have mentioned little about whether or not and the way they might hope to limit get right of entry to to the tablets as president. NPR reached out to all campaigns about their stance in this subject and has now not won responses.

What about exceptions in relation to rape, incest or the lifetime of the pregnant particular person?

Whilst Republicans in most cases oppose abortion rights, many consider there will have to be explicit circumstances during which a affected person will have to have vast abortion get right of entry to – particularly, when a being pregnant effects from rape or incest, or when an abortion would save a pregnant affected person’s existence.

The ones 3 exceptions are common a few of the Republican applicants, however some have supported or signed rules that both don’t include all 3 exceptions, or that include them to restricted extents. Nonetheless, all the final primary applicants agree in offering the ones common exceptions. However, there may be nuance amongst their positions.

• Gov. Doug Burgum, R-N.D., signed a near-total abortion ban in North Dakota that incorporated very restricted exceptions for rape and incest, permitting sufferers of the ones crimes to get abortions best as much as six weeks of gestation. That legislation additionally allowed for abortion in circumstances that may save a affected person’s existence or save you serious scientific hurt.
• Former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., advised Semafor in April 2023 that he helps exceptions in those 3 circumstances.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed a six-week abortion ban that incorporated exceptions for rape and incest as much as 15 weeks if a affected person may supply documentation. The ban additionally contained an exception to avoid wasting a affected person’s existence.
• As governor of South Carolina, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley signed an abortion ban that contained an exception to avoid wasting a affected person’s existence, however no exceptions for rape or incest. Alternatively, in June, a spokesperson mentioned she would signal a invoice that incorporated the ones exceptions.
• Vivek Ramaswamy has mentioned he helps exceptions in those 3 circumstances, consistent with Reuters.
• Former President Donald Trump has time and again mentioned at the marketing campaign path this cycle that he helps those 3 exceptions.