Subject: Re: Frozen embryos are children!
For the republicans, a reasonable stance on abortion would go a long ways towards attracting the suburban mom demographic. It would not only be the right thing to do but it would be the smart thing to do politically.

I don't know. I'm not sure that the achievable suburban mom demographic delta is bigger than the potential damage to the party among the hardcore anti-abortion faction among the "religious right." Hardline opposition to abortion, based on the simple moral argument that human life begins at conception, has been such an overwhelming part of the GOP "brand" for so long, I'm not sure they can pivot away from it without doing massive harm.

The GOP never had to reconcile their philosophy of abortion with the real-world consequences that can happen in hard cases before - they were always protected by Roe. Now that it's gone, grappling with how to set policy on those hard cases is going to be wrenching for them. And having told the anti-abortion hardliners for so long and so consistently that their....well, hardline position is not just the right policy, but the only just and moral policy, there will be considerable political consequences if they try to walk that back. They've invested far too much in raising the salience of abortion as a moral issue, not a political one.