Trump’s Attacks on Pro-Lifers Could Come Back to Haunt Him

Screen shot / Trump 2024

Among Donald Trump’s greatest assets to a traditional conservative voter in the 2024 GOP presidential primary is his consistent pro-life record as president. His appointment of three Supreme Court justices was decisive in overturning Roe v. Wade, returning the right to determine abortion policy to the people and delivering the pro-life movement its greatest victory in 50 years.

Those appointments represented the fulfillment of a promise that he made during a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, when he said that Roe would be overturned “automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.” But now, in his third campaign for the White House, Trump has more to say about the past than what he’d do with a second term.

During his townhall event with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last week, Trump declined to say what kind of federal restrictions on abortion he’d support as president. “We want to do what’s right for everybody,” Trump told Collins, who asked the logical next question: “But what’s right?”

After several more attempts to elicit an affirmative answer from him, Trump said that he would “make a determination what he thinks is great for the country and what’s fair for the country.”

“But the fact that I was able to terminate Roe v. Wade, after 50 years of trying – they worked for 50 years. I’ve never seen anything like it. They worked – and I was even – I was so honored to have done it. We are in a very good negotiating position right now, only because of what I was able to do,” he added.

No one could possibly deny as much, but with Roe gone, pro-lifers’ focus is now on taking advantage of the opportunity before them, not settling for making it to the starting line.

Instead of charting a course forward, though, Trump has castigated those who have as harsh. In a new interview with The Messenger, Trump panned his chief rival for the Republican nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for signing a ban on abortion after six weeks.

“If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing,” said Trump. “But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.” Inside of  the GOP, however, it’s the former president that’s out of touch.

According to a survey of GOP primary voters conducted by Trump’s own pollster, Tony Fabrizio, 68% back a six week limit while just 27% outright oppose it. Moreover, a number of red states have signed equally restrictive laws, including in Georgia, Ohio, and Iowa — although courts have blocked their enforcement in those latter two. In each of those states, as in Florida, the incumbent Republican governors won reelection with larger margins than Trump has ever prevailed in them with. In the Peach State, Brian Kemp managed to cruise to victory by 8 points where Trump lost.

Perhaps the former president is looking past the primary to the general election, where there might be some need for triangulation on the issue. Earlier this year, Trump blamed Republicans’ underperformance in the 2022 midterms on “abortion issue,” which he said was “poorly handled by many Republicans.”

“Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again,” he continued. It may be the case that the broader American electorate is unlikely to get behind a six week ban, so a federal ban after 15 or 20 weeks supplemented by state laws like the one DeSantis has signed may the path forward in the medium-term.

But Trump is going further than recognizing the need for political practicality and actually endorsing the language and logic of the left. By calling DeSantis and his peers “harsh,” he’s not making a prudential argument about moving the ball forward slowly while appealing to persuadable voters, he’s accepting the premise that to protect the most unborn lives possible is cruel or illogical on its merits.

That dog won’t hunt in a GOP primary.

Already, there are signs that the institutional forces in the pro-life movement are ready to move on from their unlikely ally. Last month, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser condemned Trump’s original commitment to keeping the federal government out of abortion policy as “morally indefensible.”

“We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to embrace at a minimum a 15-week national standard to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact further protections,” said Dannenfelser. “Holding to the position that it is exclusively up to the states is an abdication of responsibility by anyone elected to federal office.”

On the primary debate stage, Trump will have to answer for his attacks on strong, electable pro-life leaders in the party, not only lessening his appeal to a majority of voters, but undermining the importance of one of his signature accomplishments. If he condemns the work of pro-life legislators and executives, what was the value in overturning Roe?

In 2016, Trump promised pro-lifers progress; to his credit, he delivered. Now, he’s offering nothing but platitudes and rebukes.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.