A U.S. House Republican from Wisconsin quietly removed pro-life positions from the issues page of his campaign website earlier this summer, as the nation approached the third anniversary of the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. The move adds to GOP lawmakers’ apparent efforts to downplay their staunchly anti-abortion views as Americans increasingly back abortion access ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The campaign website for Rep. Bryan Steil, who has served in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District since 2018, underwent an overhaul sometime between May 15 and June 27, snapshots of the website show. It featured new branding and an updated issues page detailing his platform on three major issues — strengthening the economy, “securing our communities” and “protecting our seniors” — while including a few paragraphs at the end of the page noting his support for veterans and, briefly, improved access to education, lowering prices and life.
On May 15, however, that issues page included a larger description of Steil’s pro-life perspective, explaining that he is “proudly pro-life,” lauding the Dobbs decision as a “victory for life,” listing the anti-abortion legislation and initiatives — like the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and striking taxpayer funding for abortion care — he backed and stating his support for access to IVF, according to an archive of the webpage.
“I am proudly pro-life,” the three-paragraph section began. “We must work to cherish and protect the sanctity of life at its most vulnerable stages.”
His campaign website now only mentions his support for IVF while nodding to his pro-life views in a single line at the bottom of the issues page.
“He supports access to IVF and is a strong supporter of life,” the site says.
A spokesperson for Steil’s campaign told Salon in a statement that Steil’s website is regularly updated.
His “official website maintains a longer description for a variety of policy issues,” the spokesman said. “Congressman Steil’s positions on important issues including life, IVF, and the Second Amendment have not changed.”
The Wisconsin lawmaker’s official U.S. government website features an expansive issues page, including positions on the Second Amendment, public safety, seniors and veterans. A Salon search of the terms “pro-life,” “anti-life,” “life” and “abortion” only returned two articles — one that criticized President Biden’s first day in office and another that praised the Dobbs decision — that appeared related to abortion rights and Steil’s opposition to it. As of Aug. 21, Steil’s about page on his official site made no mention of his pro-life views.
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Steil’s track record in Congress, however, makes his stance on abortion clear. In 2021, he signed onto an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn the federal right to abortion and lauded the subsequent decision. The congressman has twice voted against a bill that would have barred government restrictions on access to abortion care and cosponsored bills that would have criminalized physicians who provide abortions after detecting a heartbeat or in rare cases where a child was born alive after an attempted abortion. He has previously received and touted endorsements from Wisconsin Right to Life and “A+” ratings from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
For his part, Steil’s campaign has also shortened a paragraph outlining his support for the Second Amendment to just one sentence, five paragraphs on military servicemen and veterans to one, six sentences on education and workforce development to one sentence, and axed another blurb on the importance of election security altogether. References to other sections from the previous version of the site — working to lower prices, “keeping our communities safe,” debt and deficit, and “securing our border” — also appear to have been folded into the descriptions of the main issues of the new website with moderated and broadened language.
Still, the campaign’s shift from including explicit pro-life messaging on his website to language that only suggests his support could indicate that Steil, like other Republicans, is seeking to distance himself from policies on contentious issues that are growing increasingly unpopular with Americans, argued Ali Muldrow, the executive director of the Wisconsin Abortion Fund.
“His stance hasn’t changed. His desire to make his stance as visible as possible has — that’s what’s changed,” she said in a phone interview. “It’s not what he thinks, it’s how loudly he’s willing to make sure that the people voting for him are aware of that.”
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Abortion rights and access quickly emerged as a key issue during the 2024 election cycle as Americans clamored for greater access to reproductive care against Republican-led, state-by-state efforts to implement strict abortion bans after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Voters in seven states last fall voted to codify a right to abortion in their state constitutions via ballot initiatives. Some 63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, including 67% of Wisconsinites, according to Pew Research Center data. Wisconsin currently bans abortion in most cases after 20 weeks with additional regulations limiting access, including a 24-hour waiting period to obtain one after first consulting a physician.
Meanwhile, a number of GOP candidates last election cycle moderated from hard anti-abortion stances, often calling for six-week or near-total bans with almost no exceptions, to supporting up to 15-week bans and exceptions for rape, incest and the pregnant person’s health. Those shifts came as Republican candidates realized advocating for increased abortion restrictions was a losing strategy, mirroring then-candidate Donald Trump’s ultimate decision to leave the matter to the states after years of flip-flopping on abortion himself.
Steil’s “perspective is not popular in the state of Wisconsin because it’s dangerous and it’s dehumanizing,” Muldrow said, adding that Republican candidates are “not interested in the safety of pregnant people. They’re interested in controlling pregnant people and forcing people to maintain pregnancies, no matter what the consequences. Now they’re trying to figure out how to adjust that stance because that stance isn’t actually pro-life. That stance is tremendously dangerous.”
Steil will be fighting for his seat again in 2026, with two declared Democratic challengers — Mitchell Berman and Randy Bryce — so far vying for the party nomination and the chance to win his seat in the general election.
