It's basically a Democrat primary litmus test that one supports few or no abortion restrictions, which won't help them win general elections.
Correct because that is not an election issue yet. A smart move by republicans would be to propose a 15-week limit with exceptions for certain cases, similar to what Graham was proposing.
And herein lies the asymmetry - democrats were defending abortion until Dobbs so they naturally had to moderate their tone. republicans were trying to repeal it and hence their tone was aggressively anti-abortion. Now that the tables are turned, it is far easier to paint republicans as extremist just by citing their recent statements or recent votes (some were totally idiotic, like banning abortion in all cases without any exceptions). It will be a painful few years until republicans restructure their coalition and tone down their messaging.
That 64% of Americans support some form of abortion but 63% of Republicans do not. And so states that are purple or red-leaning will see a no-tolerance abortion position being a requirement to make it through the Republican primary.
But that long term it will erode the popularity of Republicans across the country.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/opinion/abortion-rights-w...