Pro-lifers beware: Donald Trump is a fair-weather friend on abortion | Opinion
If you feel confused about where Donald Trump now stands on abortion, you aren’t the only one.
His comment on “Meet the Press” last month that the heartbeat bill signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year was “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake” left a lot of pro-lifers wondering if that was a swing at his closest Republican rival or a veiled shot at them.
And many a brow was furrowed when Trump continued to express his decidedly obscure position on abortion.
“It could be a state ban, it could be a federal ban,” he replied when asked if he supported a federal ban.
Which he favored was not clear.
“There is a number, and there’s a number that’s going to be agreed to,” he continued, referring to the weeks’ or months’ gestation that such a ban might be set.
He didn’t offer a number, just a promise to “negotiate” and make both sides gloriously happy so that they could set the issue behind them and move on to more pressing matters.
We should be so lucky.
Trump isn’t wrong that there is probably a number of weeks of fetal development after which the majority of Americans would find abortion both unnecessary and immoral.
According to Gallup polling, that number is probably sometime after the end of the first trimester, which is 13 weeks, so a 15-week ban is actually quite generous, and akin to elective abortion bans in many European nations.
It’s also, from a pro-life perspective, basically useless, since the vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester of pregnancy.
But back to Trump.
The former president likes to credit himself — and himself alone — for the collapse of Roe v. Wade.
Indeed, he has dubbed himself the “most pro-life president in history,” a moniker he once used proudly and with regularity.
No one can deny that it was his Supreme Court picks, Justices Neil Gorusch and Amy Coney Barrett, who made the demise of Roe possible.
That is a praiseworthy feat, Trump’s general distastefulness aside.
Contrary to his claims of it being his solitary accomplishment, it had been in the making for decades.
Trump’s assertion of victory, however, also makes his current mealy-mouthed comments about a national ban, and sometimes hostility toward the movement in general, perplexing for some of his supporters. Many are seeking clarity and a new commitment to their cause.
They shouldn’t hold their breath.
After all, Trump blamed “the abortion issue” and its poor messaging on Republican midterm losses.
He claimed that pro-lifers “just plain disappeared” after they “got their wish” from the Supreme Court and didn’t show up again.
He makes a fair point when it comes to messaging. Some Republican politicians have been inartful and overbroad when addressing an issue that is complex and nuanced for so many Americans.
Still Trump conveniently forgets that his presidency was made possible by the movement he now seems hesitant to claim as his own.
Christian conservatives and other pro-life forces propelled his candidacy in 2016 on the promise that he would select from a list of jurists who would interpret the Constitution as written.
The relationship was symbiotic if somewhat bizarre for a man who had previously referred to himself as “very pro-choice.”
Still, both parties lived up to their part of the bargain.
After the Dobbs decision, pro-lifers did not abandon the cause, but shifted their political energy to state efforts. That has borne decidedly mixed results, as expected.
It has also left Trump, a man who can’t abide losing (or admit it when he does), ready to abandon pro-lifers.
During last week’s second GOP presidential debate, DeSantis pressed Trump to come and explain his current position on abortion.
The invitation is worthless not because Trump won’t accept, but because he does not appear to have a principled position, if he ever did.
Everyone loves a good conversion story, but it was apparent that Trump’s adoption of the pro-life cause was not borne out of a moral transformation but a political one.
Trump will serve whatever cause best suits his political aspirations.
Pro-lifers would do best to keep that in mind this election cycle.
