Many Americans say Dobbs decision will affect their vote in the midterms. Heartland Republicans don’t know how to answer.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade may be a galvanizing issue in November’s midterms. Despite decades to prepare, anti-abortion Republicans might fumble it.

In a recent poll from NPR, PBS Newshour and Marist College, 62% of registered voters said they’re more likely to vote due to the decision. And 51% of voters said they are now more likely to vote for a candidate in favor or codifying Roe into federal law.

Despite abortion regulations galvanizing nearly two-thirds of Americans to get out and vote, Republicans across the country have been unable to seriously address questions on what happens next.

A few days after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an Ohio child abuse doctor made an infamous call to an Indianapolis OB-GYN, the Indianapolis Star reported.

The Ohio doctor had a 10-year-old patient who was pregnant and three days past the cutoff Ohio put in effect almost immediately after the SCOTUS decision.

The ban, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in 2019, prohibits abortions after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant. It has no exemptions for rape or incest.

The Star reported the child was able to travel to Indiana for care.

But that option could soon disappear. Indiana’s laws have already begun tightening, as a federal judge last week lifted an injunction against a law which makes performing certain types of second trimester abortions a felony offense. Later this month, the Republican-controlled legislature will convene for a special session on abortion restrictions.

Responding to a question from the Cincinnati Enquirer about the 10-year-old’s situation last week, DeWine — who is up for reelection in November — acknowledged the “horrible, horrible tragedy,” but he dodged around his own culpability in the “gut-wrenching” matter.

In other states, Republicans have poorly answered or failed to answer related questions in a similar fashion.

CNN reporter Dana Bash earlier this month asked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) whether her state’s trigger law would force a child in the same situation to have the baby.

Noem took an almost identical route to DeWine in her response: “What’s incredible is nobody’s talking about the pervert, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 10-year-old. What are we doing about that?”

When Bash pushed the issue, noting that “our bodies are our bodies and women are the ones who get pregnant,” and it wasn’t an adult, but a girl who was became pregnant after being raped, Noem responded, “in South Dakota, the law today is that abortions are illegal except to save the life of the mother.”

She said she wouldn’t be OK with a child forced to carry to term but stopped far short of clarifying if the situation would fall under the “life of the mother” exemption, or if she endorsed adding a specific exemption for pregnant children.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Tim Michels — who holds a narrow lead in the state’s GOP primary for governor and believes “that God is unhappy with a country that allows for the killing of babies” — was unclear on whether he would ban emergency contraception such as Plan B.

In audio from a Calumet County GOP event, Michels said he would ban what an attendee referred to as “abortion pills that are being passed off as contraception.”

His campaign declined to clarify whether Michels would sign legislation banning emergency contraception, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week.

GOP candidate for Michigan governor Garrett Soldano, however, had a more definite answer: He would try to ban Plan B as governor.

As previously reported by Heartland Signal, Soldano was caught on video saying he would ban the medication. He said a person would need to “prove conception didn’t happen” to use it.

According to the NPR/PBS News Hour poll, 56% of Americans are concerned the rights to contraception, as well as same-sex marriage and relationships, are in jeopardy.