Activists march on Roe vs Wade anniversary

Highlighting stakes

Anti-abortion groups want to make a federal ban a key 2024 election issue. Last week, the Democratic National Committee launched a national and local media campaign to highlight the stakes of next year's presidential election on reproductive freedom. The campaign includes billboard ads that began in Times Square and battleground states across the country. According to the DNC, the ads will highlight the contrast between Democrats' efforts to protect abortion rights and Republicans' attempts to ban abortion.

The DNC billboard campaign is part of a broader push by Democrats and reproductive rights activists to begin mobilizing voters on abortion rights.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion rights group in Virginia, told CBS News that the court's Roe decision was "a political earthquake, creating a unique opportunity for Democrats to motivate their depressed base and giving them the best opportunity they'll ever have to use the issue politically".In addition to the large disparity in spending on the abortion issue, key GOP candidates demoralized their own base by taking the "ostrich strategy: Burying their heads in the sand and running from the issue, allowing their opponents to define them", she said.

While Democrats have seized on abortion rights since the overturning of Roe, some Republicans seeking the presidential nomination have struggled to navigate the issue. They are seeking to appeal to the party's anti-abortion base while finding a safe political stance on an issue that an overwhelming majority of US people support.

Abortion foes are pressuring Republican candidates to back a national ban on most abortions at 15 weeks or earlier. But so far, the Republican field has offered differing positions.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum have signed six-week abortion bans, but the former has been less clear on where he stands on a federal abortion ban. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina initially refused to answer direct questions on what national restrictions he would support before committing to sign a 15-week ban.

Former president Donald Trump has avoided being pinned down on whether he supports a federal abortion ban and if so, after how many weeks of pregnancy he would want such a ban to take effect.

Trump has blamed Republicans' poor outcomes in last year's midterm elections on their anti-abortion platforms. He has criticized Florida's six-week abortion ban signed into law by his presidential nomination rival DeSantis, calling it too harsh. But he has also taken credit for overturning Roe, noting he nominated three of the Supreme Court justices in the decision.

Former vice-president Mike Pence called for a national 15-week abortion ban on Friday. "Every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard," Pence said at the Faith &Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference in Washington.

Dannenfelser called Pence "the definition of an unapologetic pro-life leader". She has said she will oppose any presidential candidate who does not embrace a 15-week national ban.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham also called on all GOP presidential candidates to commit to a 15-week abortion ban.

"And if you cannot do that, you should not be the nominee for the Republican Party," Graham said at the conference.

A number of Republican hopefuls were set to speak at the evangelical summit this weekend, including Trump, who was set to headline an evening gala.

Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, said that Republican presidential candidates need a "testosterone shot" in order to fight harder for abortion bans.