Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has described himself in the past as a “pro-life Democrat.” He has voted for a Donald Trump-backed federal 20-week abortion restriction and once said Roe v. Wade should be overturned. But this week, a leading abortion rights group endorsed him for the first time.
“We don’t win back the Senate without Pennsylvania,” explained Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, the group formerly known as NARAL. Timmaraju’s group became the first national abortion rights organization to officially back Casey because “post-Dobbs, he immediately understood that things had fundamentally changed in this country and his constituents were going to suffer,” she said.
And with that endorsement, the era of the “pro-life Democrat” in Congress is practically over.
In 2010, there were 43 House districts and at least six Senate seats held by Democrats who held anti-abortion views. Today, Rep. Henry Cuellar is the only Democrat in either the House or the Senate who doesn’t support abortion rights. (Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, has voted against abortion rights on several occasions and is retiring.)
Cuellar is the only Democratic member of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and the last Democratic lawmaker standing with an anti-abortion record after Reps. Daniel Lipinski and Collin Peterson lost in 2020. (Cuellar, the recently indicted Texas congressman, is expected to keep his House seat due to his power over his district and an opponent who the GOP hasn’t extensively backed.)
Casey’s about-face on abortion rights mirrors that of Democrats around the country and is perhaps one of the clearest signs that holding an anti-abortion rights position is a difficult one to maintain in the party. There have been three paths for anti-abortion Democrats in the last decade: retire, lose reelection or change positions.
The highest-profile example is President Joe Biden, who, as a practicing Catholic, once said Roe “went too far” and now says he’s “not big on abortion” but Roe v. Wade “got it right.” Even the late Harry Reid, former Democratic Senate minority leader, described himself as “pro-life” but also led other Democrats in blocking anti-abortion legislation later in his career.
“The evolution that Sen. Casey has had is one that many Republicans have had, many Democrats have had, many people who are completely apolitical have had, where they’re realizing that they can have all kinds of nuanced positions when it comes to what decisions they would make themselves, but they are very much in agreement that they should get to make those decisions, and not politicians,” said Jess McIntosh, a longtime Democratic strategist.
Democrats have made abortion access a centerpiece of the 2024 campaign — and it’s been a potent attack on the GOP at the ballot box since the Dobbs decision — making it all but impossible to run as a Democrat on a “pro-life” position.
Casey has been in the Senate since 2007. Before Roe was overturned, he supported the Hyde Amendment and voted for a 20-week abortion ban. He is the son of former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey, a devout Catholic and Democrat who supported the restrictions on abortion that led to a landmark Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which allowed states to impose certain limits on abortion.
But shortly after Dobbs, he called the ruling “dangerous” and said it would put “women’s lives at risk.” Casey also now supports codifying Roe v. Wade’s protections into law (allowing abortions until viability, which is around 24 weeks of pregnancy) and has called to end the filibuster to pass legislation to do so. He has also backed bills to create rights to access birth control and fertility treatments.
Casey said last year that Dobbs made the term “pro-life” “antiquated.” He argued that it’s not about being “pro-choice” or “pro-life.” The discussion now, he said, is about support and opposition to abortion bans.
“It’s what kind of country you’re going to be: Are we going to be a country that bans abortion?” Casey told the now-defunct news outlet, The Messenger. “That’s where I think Dobbs, really in so many ways, it was not just the overturning of a 49-year right, but it completely changed the conversation about the way forward, which is to kind of split people into two lanes — you are either going to support banning abortion or not.”
Anti-abortion activists say this shift from Casey and other Democrats is disappointing.
“The abortion industrial complex has total control over the [Democratic] Party. … If you want a future in the party, you have to do what they want,” said Terrisa Bukovinac, the president of the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.
Most Americans — 63% — say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center. The number is even more stark along party lines, with 85% of Democrats supportive of keeping abortion legal in all or most cases. Democratic strategists have said that anti-abortion activists have no place in the party and Democrats who oppose abortion know this.
Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, told NOTUS that now “you have to support abortion to be in the Democratic Party.” But, she added, that anti-abortion Democrats being shunned from the party could cost Democrats elections. Day also pointed to a Pew survey that fewer people now identify as Democrats, suggesting that was, in part, because of the party’s position on abortion.
“Pro-life Democrats are not voting for Kamala Harris. I mean, they’re not voting for Trump either, but they’re not voting for this extreme abortion position,” Day said. “If, you know, the party continues to do this, it’s going to grow smaller and smaller. … There has to be a massive wake-up call, and maybe losing this election might be that wake up call.”
Most Democrats who have opposed abortion, even when it’s not a major part of their campaign, have lost their races. Heath Mello, for example, ran as a Democrat for mayor in Omaha, Nebraska, receiving support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and then-Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez, but lost the race after abortion rights groups attacked his anti-abortion record.
Other Democrats have also changed their party affiliation because of their anti-abortion sentiment, such as Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell. He said in April that his former Democratic colleagues failed to respect his “religious-based, pro-life position,” causing him to become a Republican.
Republican Dave McCormick, who is challenging Casey, said, “There’s no one who has less credibility” on abortion than Casey during a recent Pennsylvania Senate debate.
“Sen. Casey was one of the most pro-life senators in the Senate, and he has now moved his position,” McCormick said. “He’s essentially going where the wind goes; he’s been weak on this and so many issues. Where his party has shifted to the left, he has shifted with them.”
McCormick may be right that Casey has dramatically shifted his stance on abortion, but abortion rights advocates say that’s not a bad thing.
When it comes to abortion rights, “the American people … have evolved well beyond Congress,” Timmaraju told NOTUS. “And our job is to move Congress as well.”
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Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.