The Republican National Convention speaker lineup was chock-full of leaders who have historically not been shy about their anti-abortion views—yet, the speeches this year were remarkably silent on the topic of reproductive care access altogether.
In his 2020 RNC nomination acceptance speech, then-president Donald Trump touted common anti-abortion myths, saying that Democrats support, “the extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies right up to the moment of BIRTH,” adding, “tonight, we proudly declare that all children, born and unborn, have a GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO LIFE.”
On the stage on Thursday, Trump didn’t mention abortion once.
And he wasn’t alone—in the past months, Trump has set a standard tone for his party to mimic: In public, attempt to appear more moderate on abortion in order not to isolate the majority of Americans who support access in most or all cases. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, anti-abortion legislators and activists continue to plan for what they could get done in another four years of the GOP in the White House.
The RNC spanned Monday through Thursday this past week, just days after the failed assassination attempt on Trump. The speakers hailed from across the country, including those the party described as “everyday” Americans and big-ticket names like Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, and Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White.
Representatives across the country who have long been vehement in their support for banning abortion in their states and nationwide chose not to use their precious minutes on stage at the RNC, which at its peak had over 25 million viewers tuning in, to talk about their plans for furthering anti-abortion legislation in the future.
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake—who has previously tried to misrepresent her support for the state’s Civil War-era near-total abortion ban, which she referred to as “a great law” that would “be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow”—didn’t mention abortion. Governor Greg Abbott—who in 2021 signed a near-total abortion ban into law and has said he will “continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion”—didn’t mention abortion. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee—who has an A+ rating from the leading anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and who, post-Dobbs, celebrated that “our work can continue free from the arbitrary hand-tying of the Roe era”—didn’t mention abortion.
One of Trump’s leading men in Congress, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, also followed the “mum’s the word” abortion strategy at the RNC this past week. Johnson—who has voted for a national ban, once blamed abortion, in part, for mass shootings, and compared reproductive health care access to “an American holocaust”—primarily spoke instead about God and immigration.
And then there’s Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who officially accepted the nomination for Vice President on Wednesday night. In his speech, Vance leaned into his upbringing and used his time to discuss international wars and the economy—in both cases misrepresenting the facts. What Vance didn’t pull from, notably, was his past arsenal of anti-abortion policy positions.
Vance, like his running mate, has tried to tamper down his rhetoric in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Earlier this month, he said he agreed with the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of an attempt to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone. He’s previously said that he finds “something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that it is liberating to murder their own children” and that he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.”