As voters prioritize cost of living, focus on abortion evolves in midterm elections

Abortion pills "just in case"? Planned Parenthood will offer them in two states

But, in 2026, that focus may be changing. Since January, candidates have spent almost four times less on campaign ads about abortion, compared to the same period in 2024.

It underscores a broader shift in attention within the party ahead of the midterm elections this fall, as voters consistently rank cost-of-living concerns as their top issue, raising questions about what an evolving Democratic message on reproductive rights looks like in 2026.

Abortion rights advocates acknowledge it's been a challenge to break through on messaging this year, citing a crowded news cycle, but argue that calls to protect reproductive access and care need to be part of the political conversation around affordability.

"When you talk about reproductive freedom in the context of the larger crisis in this country around the economy, it resonates," said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All.

"Most voters who care about reproductive freedom also understand the interconnection between the rising cost of health care, the rising costs of child care, the lack of maternal health care in their communities," she added. "And they need to hear about these issues together."

'Unaffordable isn't accessible'

That connection is one that Democrat Graham Platner has also leaned into in his bid for U.S. Senate in Maine.

Graham Platner and his wife, Amy Gertner, share a moment after a campaign event on May 17, in Portland, Maine. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Platner, an oyster farmer and veteran, is known for railing against the billionaire class and political status quo. But he and his wife have also been sharing a more personal side of their story: their struggle to start a family and the high costs associated with fertility treatments such as IVF.

"To watch the woman that I love, who I want to start a family with, go through this experience of infertility. Like, I can see how it impacts her," Platner said, sitting next to his wife, Amy Gertner, in a video shared in January.

In the video, the couple announced they would be taking a brief break from the campaign trail to go to Norway, emphasizing that fertility treatments like IVF cost, on average, tens of thousands of dollars less than treatment in the U.S.

Democrats have often talked about family planning as part of a larger conversation focused on warding off Republican-led restrictions on women's health and reproductive rights. Platner has not shied away from making that point, but he's also approached the issue through an affordability lens, calling for universal healthcare and child care.

"If you have the right to do something but you can't afford it, you don't actually have access to it," he told NPR.

"Everyone, in my opinion, deserves good, high-quality health care, whether that is reproductive health care around the beginning of pregnancy or around ending one. Either way, it is part of reproductive health care," he added. "I think we need to change our thinking around what access actually is, because something that is unaffordable isn't accessible."

Maine is one of several states with fairly strong abortion protections. But Platner's Republican opponent, five-term incumbent Susan Collins, has a complicated history with the issue, voting to confirm two of President Trump's Supreme Court picks, both of whom later voted to overturn Roe. This year marks the first time she's on the ballot since the historic ruling.

Collins, who says she supports abortion rights, has argued that the Dobbs decision was "inconsistent" with what both justices communicated during their confirmation processes. However, her connection to the issue won't sit well with voters this year, argued Platner's campaign manager Ben Chin.

"We do expect that to be a major reckoning for her," Chin told reporters on a call last month.

'That's an economic issue, too.'

Abortion and reproductive rights issues have been a key topic in several closely watched state races. However, even as fewer Democrats vying for House and Senate focus their bids around the issue, lawmakers running for reelection or seeking higher office say their message on the topic hasn't changed.

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., addresses media on Feb. 20, in St Paul, Minn. David Berding/Getty Images

David Berding/Getty Images

"Voters do have an ability to think about more than one thing and certainly for many, many voters, economic opportunity, economic concerns are going to be front and center," said Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn. "But remember, the right to decide when, the right to decide with whom, to start a family, that's an economic issue too."

Craig, who's long been a reproductive rights advocate on Capitol Hill, is running for the open Senate seat in her home state of Minnesota. In an interview with NPR, she emphasized her support for codifying federal protections for abortions and pledging, if elected, to vote against Trump's judicial nominees and cabinet picks that she says have a record of being anti-abortion.

"I think that there is this opportunity to remind folks that actually Republicans are taking away your rights," she added. "We can still run very strongly against their assault on reproductive rights in this country, and we can relate that back to economic issues in this country."

Fights over abortion policy continue post Roe

It's a topic that could become paramount for Democrats moving forward, as Republican-led states try to scale back or get rid of the abortion pill mifepristone, and Trump faces pressure from his base to take additional action in his second term.

Reproductive rights in America

The Supreme Court keeps abortion pill mifepristone available by telehealth

Mifepristone is available via telehealth in the U.S., but the future of that access is playing out in the federal courts. Just last week, the Supreme Court ordered that the law to provide the drug by mail would stay in place, after reviewing a recent ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that would have made it illegal nationwide to mail mifepristone.

It's a reminder that the conversation around abortion rights is far from settled, argues Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization that supports abortion rights.

"I think we're at a really, almost accidental detente when it comes to abortion policy in the U.S. right now," said Baden, "And to be clear, it's not great."

Currently, 13 states have total abortion bans, but levels of access elsewhere vary, and in the years since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortions in the U.S. has slightly increased – due in part to the ability to mail medication abortion pills to patients, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health research organization.

"As long as people are still getting abortion care … abortion opponents will keep legislating it at every level and in every courtroom that they can to try to stop it," Baden added. "That means it will be on the ballot one way or another, this midterm and probably every election."