National Right to Life’s own polling has shown that over 80% of the public believes abortion should be allowed in each of the cases mentioned above, namely, to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape or incest, and in case of a medical emergency. These folks obviously oppose a “National Ban on Abortion” and it’s hard to win an election when 80+% of the voters disagree with you on a very major issue.

It’s very likely that many or most of the candidates in the first debate agree with allowing abortion in those instances, which collectively account for about 5% of all abortions. In fact the Heartbeat law recently passed in Florida and signed by Governor DeSantis and the one passed in South Carolina, home to Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, both contained these four exceptions.

However no candidate articulated a position accepting these exceptions. Doing so would have gone a long way towards picking up the support of those who don’t want a “Ban” but don’t support abortion being used for birth control or a method of family planning.

[This doesn’t actually conflict with what Ben Dreyfuss wrote in the earlier link. In fact, it complements it. It will take candidates who refuse to accept the terms imposed by the media and moderators, and instead ensure that they use correct terms (not “rebranding”) and speak to what the majority of the country actually wants. — Ed]