diff --git a/WORKSPACE b/WORKSPACE
index cb5f83fa..1c8ea24d 100644
--- a/WORKSPACE
+++ b/WORKSPACE
@@ -1,23 +1,10 @@
 workspace(name = "com_google_googletest")
 
+load("//:googletest_deps.bzl", "googletest_deps")
+googletest_deps()
+
 load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
 
-http_archive(
-    name = "com_google_absl",  # 2023-02-27T15:50:25Z
-    sha256 = "baf8e734ac3ce213a889ce7c248b981ee1730e2093e32808e0f0a910dc985f76",
-    strip_prefix = "abseil-cpp-0c1114c4fb83c844c7fd74708338cca1d3d9b0dc",
-    urls = ["https://github.com/abseil/abseil-cpp/archive/0c1114c4fb83c844c7fd74708338cca1d3d9b0dc.zip"],
-)
-
-# Note this must use a commit from the `abseil` branch of the RE2 project.
-# https://github.com/google/re2/tree/abseil
-http_archive(
-    name = "com_googlesource_code_re2",  # 2022-12-21T14:29:10Z
-    sha256 = "b9ce3a51beebb38534d11d40f8928d40509b9e18a735f6a4a97ad3d014c87cb5",
-    strip_prefix = "re2-d0b1f8f2ecc2ea74956c7608b6f915175314ff0e",
-    urls = ["https://github.com/google/re2/archive/d0b1f8f2ecc2ea74956c7608b6f915175314ff0e.zip"],
-)
-
 http_archive(
     name = "rules_python",  # 2023-01-10T22:00:51Z
     sha256 = "5de54486a60ad8948dabe49605bb1c08053e04001a431ab3e96745b4d97a4419",
diff --git a/googletest_deps.bzl b/googletest_deps.bzl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7fe80961
--- /dev/null
+++ b/googletest_deps.bzl
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+"""Load dependencies needed to use the googletest library as a 3rd-party consumer."""
+
+load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
+
+def googletest_deps():
+    """Loads common dependencies needed to use the googletest library."""
+
+    if not native.existing_rule("com_googlesource_code_re2"):
+        http_archive(
+            name = "com_googlesource_code_re2",  # 2022-12-21T14:29:10Z
+            sha256 = "b9ce3a51beebb38534d11d40f8928d40509b9e18a735f6a4a97ad3d014c87cb5",
+            strip_prefix = "re2-d0b1f8f2ecc2ea74956c7608b6f915175314ff0e",
+            urls = ["https://github.com/google/re2/archive/d0b1f8f2ecc2ea74956c7608b6f915175314ff0e.zip"],
+        )
+
+    if not native.existing_rule("com_google_absl"):
+        http_archive(
+            name = "com_google_absl",  # 2023-02-27T15:50:25Z
+            sha256 = "baf8e734ac3ce213a889ce7c248b981ee1730e2093e32808e0f0a910dc985f76",
+            strip_prefix = "abseil-cpp-0c1114c4fb83c844c7fd74708338cca1d3d9b0dc",
+            urls = ["https://github.com/abseil/abseil-cpp/archive/0c1114c4fb83c844c7fd74708338cca1d3d9b0dc.zip"],
+        )