Score one for women -- especially moderate Republican women.
On Wednesday evening, House Republican leaders were forced to scrap a vote on a controversial anti-abortion measure scheduled to coincide with anti-abortion advocates' annual March for Life in Washington and the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade -- a ruling which negated state laws that prevented a woman from having an abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy.
Instead, the House passed watered-down legislation that bans federal funding for abortions. Never mind that the 30-year-old federal Hyde Amendment already bans federal funding for abortion in all but the most extreme circumstances. Apparently House Republicans are counting on conservative voter ignorance to save their collective face.
Why the retrenching now on the first bill, the "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," which would ban abortions for women who are beyond 20 weeks into their pregnancy except in connection with rape?
Because women in the House rebelled at the harsh string attached to the ban's rape exception -- that the rape had to be reported to police in order to obtain the so-called late-term abortion.
House GOP leaders couldn't round up enough support for the tougher bill after two members -- Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana -- removed themselves as cosponsors of the legislation. Of the 246 Republicans in the House, 22 are women.
Those uppity female House Republicans said such a vote could threaten the party's efforts to reach out to women and young people.
At least there are still some brain cells left among the GOP House members. Perhaps they remembered the backlash when, in 2012, the GOP brand was damaged by Rep. Todd Akin's absurd remark that in a "legitimate rape" "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing [pregnancy] down"? Akin went on to lose a winnable Senate seat against a vulnerable Democrat in Missouri.
Those thoughtful Republican women, however, do not include Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who remains a sponsor on the bill along with Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.
The rebellion and retreat sends an interesting message on an issue that Republicans have typically used as a messaging vehicle -- abortion -- for years now. House Republicans proposed different versions of this bill in 2011 and 2013, each time enjoying strong praise from the pro-life community. The bills never became law and always faced veto threats from President Barack Obama.
Excepting the new fault line that emerged when some GOP women refused to fall in conservative lockstep, this legislation seemed destined for more of the same: On Tuesday, the White House had threatened to veto this one, as well, saying it conflicts with the Supreme Court's holdings on abortion rights and strongly criticizing the language relating to sexual assault.
But Wednesday, as House Republicans held a long conference meeting to find a way forward, they talked about changing the rape language. That talk fell apart when they also considered the major obstacle of alienating more right-wing members by softened rape language. Sources told CNN that some discussions got so tense that congressional aides were sent out of the room.
Meanwhile, Ellmers and fellow defectors faced the wrath of the anti-abortion community, which blasted her as "reprehensible" for siding with "violent injustice of the dismemberment of children" and demonstrating "ill-informed cowardliness."
The episodic intersection of rape and abortion is seen as a powerful defeat for the conservative wing of the party against the more moderate forces who don't want to spend time debating social issues.
And Democrats have been quick to rub sand in the GOP wound.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, labeled the rape language as "absolutely unacceptable" and argued that it's "the quickest way to ensure that there is less reporting of rape" by women.
"This bill is an abomination," Wasserman Schultz later told Talking Points Memo in an interview. "It really shows women in this country exactly who's on their side and where Republicans' priorities are when it comes to their health."
For political observers, the fun has just begun in watching what Republicans now will do with their majority as the cleavage in their party widens.
David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, put it quite succinctly on one late-night pundit show.
"These guys are like the dogs who caught the car. ..."