Nearly a year after the Supreme Court made abortion a dominant issue in the 2022 midterms, the battle over abortion rights has spilled into the heart of the nascent 2024 election season, inflaming Democrats, dividing Republicans and sparking sensitive debates about health care.

From North Carolina to Nevada, Democrats running at every level of government have vowed to make support for abortion rights a pillar of their campaigns, painting their opponents as extremists on the issue.

As the races heated up, Republicans became caught between the demands of their conservative social base and those of the broader American public Supports in general abortion rights, revealing one of the party’s biggest political commitments as it tries to reclaim the White House, reclaim the Senate and expand its narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Democrats called the Supreme Court’s order a close call, and warned that many Republicans still want as many abortion restrictions as possible, including a national ban. At the same time, Republican presidential candidates — whose teams generally did not respond to requests for comment on the Supreme Court’s decision Friday night — are struggling to find a foothold on the issue.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when many women don’t know they’re pregnant, citing a position that conservatives have praised but could hurt in a general election with moderate voters. Others, like Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, struggled To express assertive attitudes. and former President Donald J. Trump, their choices For the Supreme Court, it helped overturn Roe v. Wade, which recently angered anti-abortion leaders by emphasizing state authority over the issue rather than a national ban.

New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu said, I signed an action that prevented abortions after 24 weeks, with Some exceptions. Mr. Sununu, who calls himself “pro-choice,” was the rare Republican presidential candidate likely to offer commentary on the court’s ruling on Friday: “Good call from the Supreme Court.”

Representative Susan Delpain, a Washington Democrat who leads the campaign arm of the House of Representatives, said Republicans have moved in an increasingly “extreme” direction on abortion. She pointed, for example, to an Idaho law that criminalizes those assisting a minor obtain an abortion outside the state without parental permission, and to broader threats with abortion drugs.

“It’s dangerous,” she said, “and people are angry.” “We will see that in 2024 in elections across the country.”

As President Biden moves toward announcing his re-election bid as soon as Tuesday, one of his advisers predicted that the issue of abortion rights will be more important in 2024 than it was last year, as Americans experience the far-reaching consequences of Roe’s flip. .

Democrats are watching carefully — and airing eagerly — the positions Republicans take on abortion in the early stages of the primary season. And they click on their brief message.

“We support women in making decisions about their health care,” said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who leads the Democratic Senate campaign arm. “They are neither politicians nor judges.”

Republicans are much more divided over what their approach should be — and party officials acknowledge that this presents an acute challenge.

Conflict always arises between the demands of primary voters and the preferences of swing voters in a general election. But Roe’s coup has greatly complicated this calculus for GOP candidates. They now face detailed questions about whether to support national bans; when should the abortion ban during pregnancy be enforced; what exceptions, if any, to allow; And how do they see medicine Used in cases of abortion and abortion.

“We are spinning ourselves around the axis trying to define our position as a candidate or party during the primaries, knowing that we will have to re-explain ourselves in general,” said Mr. Sununu. “It sounds disingenuous and complicated and, at the end of the day, it really haunts voters.”

The party’s fault lines lit up again last week. After Mr. Trump’s spokesperson Referred to The Washington Post reports that the former president believes abortion should be taken at the state level. Anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America A severe rebuke.

“We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to adopt a national standard of 15 weeks as a minimum to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact more protections,” the organization’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Mr. Trump’s campaign said he “believes it is in the states where the greatest progress can happen now to protect fetuses,” while declaring he is “the most pro-life president in American history.”

There will be no shortage of opportunities for the Republican candidates to highlight their anti-abortion credentials and navigate the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision, starting Saturday, in pool From the Iowa Coalition for Faith and Freedom. Also on Tuesday, Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, is expected to give a speech on abortion.

“There are a lot of ways to determine a person’s good faith when it comes to the sanctity of human life, but I guarantee you’ll discuss Texas governance,” said Bob Vander Platts, a socially conservative leader in Iowa whose organization is expected to host a rally with the presidential candidates this summer.

He said the issue of abortion “is going to be a key issue in the Iowa caucuses. It’s going to be a key issue in the Republican primary.”

On Thursday, Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, tried to help her candidates grapple with the issue, noting that opposing abortion after 15 weeks of gestation was a strong position politically, and in part reflects the ballot she has offered members of her party. .

“In 2022, too many Republican candidates have taken their advisors’ bad advice to ignore the issue,” she said in a speech. Referring to the Democratic advertising attack on the subject, she said, “Most Republicans have had no response.”

She urged Republicans to consider Democrats “extremists” on the issue, a message echoed by some workers in the House and Senate races who say Democrats should be pressed on which restrictions they support.

Nicole McCleskey, a Republican pollster who worked for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ successful re-election campaign last year, pointed to Ms. Reynolds, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia as examples of leaders who have embraced strict restrictions on abortion but are not defined by This matter alone. All three notched comfortable wins in states that are often right-leaning, but not the most conservative in the country.

“The recent elections saw some candidates who were not clear or changed their positions, lacked conviction and were not ready to talk about this issue,” she said. She added, “If you have those things — if you have conviction, if you have empathy, if you are ready and know how to define yourself and your opposition, then we can deal with this problem successfully.”

But some candidates have shown little interest in managing the rhetorical balancing act.

The issue is likely to come to a head in North Carolina, home to what may be the most significant gubernatorial race in 2024, with Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, limited-term.

Mark Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor and often-burning Republican is expected to announce Run for governor as early as Saturday.

Mr. Robinson, who said he and his wife miscarried a pregnancy decades ago, has since to make Clear that he wanted much greater restrictions on abortion rights in North Carolina, casting doubt on the need for exceptions in cases of rape and incest. The procedure is currently legal for up to 20 weeks of gestation in the state, where Republicans have an overwhelming majority in the legislature.

Josh Stein, the state’s Democratic attorney general running for governor, said in an interview that there was “no doubt” that he saw abortion rights right on the ballot. That message worked for Democrats in gubernatorial races in several critical states last year.

“The only reason we don’t have an abortion ban in North Carolina right now is because there’s a Democratic governor,” Stein said.

A spokesman for Mr. Robinson declined to comment for this article.

For Democrats elsewhere, it can be difficult to argue that their races will decide the fate of abortion rights in their state, especially in places where abortion protections are codified. It is too early to know the mix of issues that will ultimately define the 2024 campaigns.

However, Democrats have indicated that if the Supreme Court allows the Texas ruling, it would have major ramifications nationwide — and many stress the possibility of a nationwide abortion ban, depending on the makeup of the White House and Congress.

“Although we may have existing protections for this in Nevada, if a nationwide abortion ban were imposed, Nevadas would suffer, women would die,” said Sen. Jackie Rosen of Nevada, a Democrat who recently announced she is running for re-election. Interview.

in a permit, Ms. Rosen described the Supreme Court’s order as a “temporary relief”. But in the interview, she said, the Texas ruling underlined how a conservative judge could threaten the power of a major government agency.

“It’s very scary,” she said.