Top Republicans are in a state of paralysis over abortion, watching — with one eye on the 2024 ballot box — as a cascade of new restrictions threatens to dig the party into a political hole, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.

• Why it matters: The Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade last summer was a huge victory for the GOP. But the backlash to new abortion restrictions has been furious — and could box Republicans into defending rigid, unpopular policies in next year's elections.

That backlash already helped drive Democrats' over-performance in November's midterms — and their landslide victory in last week's Wisconsin Supreme Court race, a campaign that focused squarely on abortion rights.

• As conservative judges have begun to further limit reproductive rights, Democrats are on the attack — and many Republican leaders have gone quiet.

Three days after a federal judge in Texas suspended FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, just one Republican senator — Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi — had publicly expressed support for the explosive ruling.

• Former Vice President Mike Pence was the sole potential 2024 presidential candidate to issue a statement praising the ruling, calling the FDA's approval of the drug a "20-year wrong."
• Former President Trump, who has long viewed abortion as a political loser for Republicans, was silent — as was his chief GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

What's happening: Democrats seized on the ruling to paint Republicans as extremists on abortion — a tactic that has paid enormous dividends during the past year.

• Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation yesterday that would reassert the FDA's authority to approve medications. He invited all members — including the House's 19 Biden-district Republicans — to co-sponsor the bill.

The intrigue: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) called for the FDA to ignore the mifepristone ruling, telling Kaitlan Collins on "CNN This Morning" that abortion is "an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of."

🔎 Between the lines: Polls since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. have consistently shown that the majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. On access to abortion medication such as mifepristone, the debate is even more lopsided.

👀 What we're watching: The GOP's political headaches over abortion aren't going away — especially with prolonged media coverage of the mifepristone legal fight, and a wave of unpopular new abortion restrictions coming at the state level.

• In Florida, DeSantis is expected to sign a bill changing the state's abortion ban from 15 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks — before some women know they're pregnant.

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Former President Trump has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Facebook and Google ads in recent weeks, leveraging the chaos around his indictment to fundraise and collect data ahead of his 2024 run, Axios Media Trends expert Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: Trump used the exact same playbook ahead of the 2020 election.

💭 "Trump continues to invest in his brand of fundraising and merchandising off rage," said Bully Pulpit Interactive partner Mike Schneider.

Trump is outspending likely 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the only other candidate to officially announce a 2024 run, according to data from "outcomes agency" Bully Pulpit Interactive.

• Trump substantially ramped up advertising leading up to his indictment, spending roughly $258,000 between March 19 and April 7, compared to just $8,000 the three weeks prior.
• The main focus of Trump's ads is fundraising, mostly by hawking indictment-related merchandise, and using his fake mugshot to solicit donations.

🔎 Between the lines: Neither Haley nor DeSantis is addressing the indictment in their ads, opting instead to focus on traditional fundraising messages.

• DeSantis is running fundraising ads that mention "liberal wokeness."
• Haley is running Google search ads focused on FEC fundraising deadlines.

Most of Trump's ads are being bought by his campaign's political action committee — not his main social media accounts, which have been restored in recent months.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is convinced the global economy is in better shape than some economists suggest.

• That's the case she plans to make today at a news conference kicking off the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Axios' Hans Nichols has learned.

"During the G20 in February, I said that the global economy was in a better place than many predicted last fall," Yellen's prepared remarks say. "That basic picture remains largely unchanged."

• "Prices of commodities like food and energy have stabilized. Supply chain pressures continue to ease," she plans to say.
• "In the United States, our labor market remains strong. Inflation remains too high, although we’ve seen welcome signs over the past half-year that inflation has moderated."

Yellen will acknowledge the "downside risks" posed by Russia's war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the pandemic.

🥊 Reality check: Her glass-half-full view contrasts with last October's gloomy economic forecasts by the IMF, which preceded the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the collapse of Credit Suisse in Switzerland.

• IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said last week that "growth remains weak by historical comparison," and separately told Politico's Ryan Heath that "something is going to go boom."

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The Easter Bunny appears in the White House briefing room yesterday after the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.

Four days after Tennessee House Republicans expelled Democratic lawmaker Justin Jones for participating in a gun control protest, Nashville's Metro Council voted unanimously to send him back to his old seat.

• Why it matters: Jones has emerged as a national figure at the center of passionate debates over gun violence, racial bias and democratic norms, Axios Nashville co-author Adam Tamburin writes.

🔮 What's next: Memphis-area lawmakers are meeting tomorrow to consider reappointing Justin Pearson, the other expelled Democrat, to his seat.

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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Florida Sen. Rick Scott lost friends in mass shootings over the past two weeks, Axios' Sareen Habeshian writes.

• Louisville police said last night that a fifth person had died after a shooting at a bank. Eight others are injured, including two in critical condition.

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Here's one place the pandemic didn't change everything, Ben Geman notes in Axios Generate.

Airports Council International (ACI) reveals the 10 busiest airports worldwide for 2022 (by total passengers enplaned and deplaned):

1. Atlanta (94 million passengers)
2. Dallas-Fort Worth (73 million)
3. Denver (69 million)
4. Chicago (68 million)
5. Dubai (66 million)
6. LAX (66 million)
7. Istanbul, Turkey (64 million)
8. London Heathrow (61 million)
9. New Delhi (59 million)
10. Paris (57 million)

Between the lines: Of the five U.S. airports, only Denver International had returned to pre-pandemic levels last year. LAX was the furthest behind 2019 passenger volume — by 25%, The Wall Street Journal notes (subscription).

• Total worldwide air passengers in 2022 (nearly 7 billion) were about 26% behind 2019.

Go deeper: Traffic details.

Major League Baseball's new rules — designed to speed the pace of play, and encourage more action — seem to be working through the first week and a half of the season, AP's Ronald Blum writes:

• Batting average is up 16 points.
• Stolen bases have spiked 30%.
• And here's the big one: Average game time is down 31 minutes, on track to be the sport's lowest since 1984 (when it was 2:35). Average time of nine-inning games dropped to 2 hours, 38 minutes this season — from 3:09 in the first 11 days of last year, when the final average was 3:04.

The league-wide batting average is .249, a rise from .233 during a comparable period at the start of last season. Last year's average rose to .243 by year's end, the lowest since 1968.

• Right-handed batters have a .253 average, up from .236 at the start of last year. Lefty batting average is .245, up from .228.

Stolen bases have averaged 1.3 per game, up from 1.0. The success rate increased to 79.6% from 74%.

⏰ There have been 125 pitch clock violations in 141 games, an average of 0.89 per game.

• Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani is tied with 15 others for the major league lead with two pitch clock violations — both in the same game, one as a hitter and one as a pitcher.
• The Mets have the most of any team with 10.

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