Former President Trump stated this spring that the abortion issue should be appropriately handled by states, effectively signaling that he does not favor a Federal legislative strategy on abortion restriction. The policy exposes visible distance between Trump as a candidate and the teachings of Roman Catholic and Evangelical churches on the sanctity of all human life as made in the image of God and worthy of legal protection.
“My view is, now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both and whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” Trump told viewers in an April 8 video statement. “Now it’s up to the states to do the right thing.”
Trump’s change of position on abortion lends weight to accusations that his earlier stance was merely transactional.
“Trump’s statement was a signal to the left that threw truly pro-life Christians under the bus,” Allie Beth Stuckey, Host of the podcast Relatable and author of You’re Not Enough (& That’s Okay), tweeted.
Supporters of the former President counter that, during his time in office, he fulfilled promises made to the Pro-Life movement in his 2016 campaign. Amidst that campaign, he pledged to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade if he was provided an opportunity to fill Supreme Court vacancies.
Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett were appointed and confirmed during Trump’s presidency. Each of the three voted with the majority when Roe was overturned in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
Trump had already engendered favorable support from Pro-Life groups through his appointment of officials to Federal agencies that advanced the stated policy goals of the Pro-Life movement. Upon taking office, Trump restored the Mexico City Policy and furthered its reach, barring federal funding to NGOs that provided abortions or promoted organizations that provided abortions. Former President Ronald Reagan was the first to institute the policy in 1984. Every Democrat elected to the presidency has revoked the policy, subsequently every Republican elected to the presidency following a Democratic administration has restored the policy.
Those in the Pro-Life movement may themselves see Trump’s engagement as transactional. When former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump were the first officeholders to attend and speak in person at the National March for Life in 2017 and 2020, their appearances effectively drew nationwide coverage. Prior GOP presidents would phone in (ostensibly due to security concerns), signaling support for the Pro-Life movement without physical presence.
Trump demonstrated both interest in the Pro-Life movement and valued loyal support from a Pro-Life constituency. Organizations including Susan B. Anthony List and Students for Life merely described their organizations as “disappointed” when commenting on Trump statements at odds with their public positions. In contrast, amidst the Republican Primary debates, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum’s statement that abortion policy was a matter for the states was forcefully rejected by the SBA List as “unacceptable.” Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was similarly chastised for questioning the feasibility of enacting a national abortion ban, while Trump’s labeling of Florida’s 6-week heartbeat law as “a terrible mistake” – a key priority for Pro-Life groups – received little pushback.
The largest Christian denominations teach that abortion is the unjustified taking of a human life except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
The Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant body, opposes abortion with the exception for the rare cases where the mother’s life is threatened. Resolution 13 states, “all human life is sacred gift from our sovereign God and therefore… all abortions, except in those rare cases where the life of the mother is clearly in danger, are wrong.”
The Roman Catholic Church also opposes abortion. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states, “God loves each human life from the instant of his or her conception and entrusts this gift to the protection of a mother and father. Abortion ends the life of a child and offends God. It also deeply wounds the women and men involved.”
“Pro-life evangelicals make a huge voting block, yet we’ve got exactly 0 presidential candidates vying for our vote. RFK picked a far-left social justice activist, and Donald Trump’s out here reminding those to the left of us that he’s a squish on abortion,” Stuckey told her Twitter followers. “The cheering of IVF, support of nonsensical abortion exceptions, and his ‘will of the people’ repetition are all ways to convey the message, ‘See? I’m not like those radicals to the right of me! I’m moderate! Sane! Compassionate! Pro-democracy!’ He’s been successfully empathy-shamed by the left and still thinks somehow that he’s going to convince some of them to vote for him.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser released a statement saying, “We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”
“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights,” Dannenfelser stated.
Comment by David F Miller on May 30, 2024 at 5:25 pm
What Church is Ms Moy speaking of. All mainline churches are prochoice. The United Methodist Church just passed revised Social Principles that are mostly prochoice.
Comment by MikeB on June 2, 2024 at 6:43 pm
The sad new is Abortions are up post Dobbs, we aren’t going to win this through laws and elections.
America is too dependent on the ability to kill babies that will inconvenience them.
Going to be a long slog to re-vitalize a culture of life.