Is Republican nominee for governor Doug Mastriano shifting his tone on abortion?

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor who this spring called abortion his “No. 1 issue,” seemingly tempered his tone in a pair of interviews this week, saying governors can’t dictate abortion policy.

Mastriano, in interviews with Fox News and a local radio station, quoted the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and said, “The authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

“The people of Pennsylvania, you decide what abortion looks like,” Mastriano said in a Monday interview on 1210 WPHT-AM. “You decide on exceptions. You decide on how early. And that’s in the hands of the people. That’s a fact. That’s not a dodge. That’s exactly how it works.”

While he hasn’t backed off of any previous pledges to restrict abortion access, Mastriano’s remarks come as public polling shows a majority of Americans disapprove of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and as Democrats have tried to make it a core issue in November.

Nationally, Republicans have tried to focus the general election conversation on issues like gas prices and inflation, a strategy Mastriano employed in June after the high court’s ruling, saying in a statement that “Pennsylvanians will not be distracted by the hysterics of the left as they exploit this ruling to try to fulfill their far-left agenda.”

Still, his comments this week were a deviation from his rhetoric during the primary campaign, when his position on abortion was one of the most conservative in a crowded field of Republican candidates.

He did not shy away from the issue in April, saying during a gubernatorial debate that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, he would “move with alacrity, with speed” to sign legislation banning abortion after about six weeks into a pregnancy. He added that he believes life begins at conception, saying, “We’re gonna have to work our way towards that,” and, “I don’t give a way for exceptions.”

When radio host Dom Giordano pressed Mastriano on Monday on whether he would be in favor of legislation that restricts abortion but allows for some exceptions, he said: “In many ways, my personal views are irrelevant in the effect that I can’t do anything with abortion because it’s codified in law.”

It’s true that the governor can’t unilaterally change existing law on abortion. Current Pennsylvania law generally allows the procedure to be performed up to about 24 weeks into a pregnancy, a threshold that did not change upon the overturning of Roe.

But the governor can veto legislation, a power that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has used three times to reject bills passed by the Republican-controlled legislature that would have further restricted access to abortion in the state.

And if the GOP maintains control of the General Assembly, a Republican governor would play a critical role in shaping and signing any abortion-related legislation.

» READ MORE: A deep dive into Doug Mastriano and Josh Shapiro's records on abortion

The leadership in the legislature has already displayed some appetite to change current law. This month, lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would state Pennsylvania has no constitutional right to an abortion or to taxpayer funding for abortion care. The amendment — which has been seen as a way to inoculate future abortion restrictions against legal challenges — needs to pass again in the next legislative session and could then be considered by voters as early as spring 2023.

While the amendment itself cannot be vetoed, new legislation written in accordance with it would still require the governor’s signature. (The General Assembly can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.)

Mastriano’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. He generally does not respond to interview requests from traditional media outlets.

His seeming shift this week came after Democrats and their allies have for months tried to portray his stance on abortion as extreme.

The Democratic nominee, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, started airing TV commercials about Mastriano’s position in May, and outside groups have run ads showing Mastriano describing the slogan “my body, my choice” as “ridiculous nonsense.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Shapiro’s campaign said Wednesday that Mastriano’s “extreme positions are way out-of-step with Pennsylvanians, and there’s no hiding his dangerous views now.”

Shapiro has said that he supports current state law that allows for abortions up to about 24 weeks into pregnancy.

Public polling in Pennsylvania shows the majority of voters favor some limitations on abortion but not far-reaching restrictions.

Mastriano has for years been generally consistent on the issue. When he was elected to the state Senate in 2019, the first bill he introduced was a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortion when cardiac activity is detected in an embryo, which typically happens at around six weeks into a pregnancy, before many know they are pregnant.

However, in an interview this week on Fox News, Mastriano also floated the idea of “fetal pain” legislation, which generally refers to banning abortion after about 20 weeks into a pregnancy. (Experts say it’s nearly impossible to pinpoint when pain perception begins in fetuses.) That measure would be far less restrictive than his heartbeat bill.

“The people of Pennsylvania get to decide what abortion and life looks like in Pennsylvania,” he said. “They’re the ones that are gonna have the say. If that’s a heartbeat bill, if that’s a fetal pain bill, that’s what comes to my desk.”