Since Roe vs. Wade was overturned, a number of Republican-led states have passed laws that prohibit abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy or when a fetal heartbeat can be detected (though many of these laws have been blocked in court). According to June polling from Harris Poll for the Harvard University Center for American Political Studies, Republicans favor similar laws in their states by a margin of 30 percentage points (65 percent support and 35 percent oppose).
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

DeSantis brushed off concerns that his signing a six-week abortion ban in Florida will hurt him on the national stage.

"I would say we sold the biggest election landslide victory in the history of the Republican party and the state of Florida in 2022," DeSantis countered. "That's what I did. We can win."

DeSantis argued "we're better than what the Democrats are selling" but ultimately demurred on whether he'd support a six-week ban at the national level.

"I will stand on the side of life," he responded.

DeSantis wouldn’t directly answer when the moderators asked him if he would sign a national abortion ban, and Pence pounced. He comes from the social conservative wing of the party, and supports a national ban. This isn’t the first time Pence has criticized DeSantis for not being conservative enough on abortion, either.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight

Haley reiterated her calls for "compassion" when the country debates abortion, though she declined to state whether she would support a federal ban on the procedure.

Haley noted the uphill climb to a federal ban, referencing the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate, but said she would oppose late-term abortions and punishments for women who receive abortions.

"Can't we all agree that we should ban late term abortions? Can't we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can't we all agree that doctors and nurses who don't believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them? Can't we all agree that contraception should be available? And can't we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion? Let's treat this like the like the respectful issue that it is," she said.

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

In anticipation of tonight’s debate, we partnered with Ipsos and The Washington Post to ask likely Republican primary voters what they think about tonight’s debate participants and the candidate field in general.

The 4,968 likely Republican primary voters we polled using Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel expect Ramaswamy’s performance to be best among the eight expected debate participants. According to a five-point scale that we calculated using respondents’ answers (with 1 being “terrible” and 5 being “excellent”), likely voters expected Ramaswamy to perform “very good” (3.59 out of 5). They thought DeSantis would perform second-best (3.51 out of 5) and Scott third (3.43 out of 5).

When it comes to whom respondents think they’ll place their votes for in the primaries, 65 percent are considering Trump and 52 percent are considering DeSantis. About 1 in 4 likely Republican primary voters are considering voting for Pence, Scott and Haley. The remaining six candidates we asked about fell below 25 percent.

We’ll be watching to see how the candidates fare tonight, and if debate watchers’ opinions on whom they’re considering voting for will change after tonight’s performances.

-Analysis by Holly Fuong of FiveThirtyEight