- Donald Trump has very much disappointed some conservatives on abortion.
- In refusing to support a national ban on abortion, Trump also bragged about helping overturn Roe.
- The reality is that if conservatives are disappointed, they have few other options.
Former President Donald Trump is very much getting tough on conservatives on abortion.
On Monday, Trump rejected efforts by major anti-abortion groups to get him to endorse a nationwide abortion ban. Even one of his most notable supporters, Sen. Lindsey Graham, failed to convince Trump to support his proposal to ban abortion after 15 weeks except in cases of rape, incest or for “save the mother’s life”.
“Today’s justification for states’ rights runs counter to an American consensus that would limit late-term abortions and age about as well as the Dred Scott decision,” Graham said in a statement, invoking the legacy of the Supreme Court’s infamous ruling that held that black Americans could not be full citizens and stoked tensions around slavery.
The reality, as has been clear for some time, is that Trump sees political peril in accepting such a position. Even during the Republican primary, Trump refused to accede to demands from anti-abortion groups to support a ban. Trump even went so far as to lambast Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his best-placed enemy, for signing a strict ban on most abortions after just 6 weeks of the law being passed.
“I think what he did was a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” Trump said of the Florida law.
At the time, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the nation’s leading anti-abortion groups, said she would not support any White House hopeful who refused to support a ban on at least 15 weeks. Some other organizations preferred to move closer to a six-week ban.
Anti-abortion groups remain behind Trump.
On Monday, the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said she would work to defeat President Joe Biden.
“We are deeply disappointed by President Trump’s position,” Dannenfelser said in a statement released by the organization.
She added: “Calling the issue a ‘return to the states’ cedes the national debate to Democrats who are working tirelessly to enact legislation mandating abortion during all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights.
Other groups also reiterated that they would work with Trump.
“Trump did the right thing – and it leaves room for better actions to be taken in the future,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, wrote on X.
Hawkins praised Trump for not supporting a 15-week ban, which she said doesn’t go far enough.
If elected, Trump could find other ways to quash any tension with abortion opponents.
Some Trump allies have advocated for a possible Trump administration to assert broad federal powers under laws such as the Comstock Act to achieve a de facto federal ban by criminalizing abortion pills and other materials used in the administration of the procedure, as the New York Times did. reported.
Anti-abortion groups have nowhere to turn. There are few anti-abortion Democrats left in the party, especially at the national level. Politics has changed so much that Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited an abortion clinic in Minnesota. Its termination would have been considered almost unthinkable just a few years ago.
Trump has a long and contradictory history of comments on abortion.
Trump’s refusal isn’t all that surprising given his history of comments on abortion.
As a presidential candidate, Trump initially refused to say whether he had dated women who had abortions. He then agreed that women who have abortions should suffer “some form of punishment,” a stance so harsh that even anti-abortion groups publicly condemned it. Ultimately, Trump’s alliance with conservatives and anti-abortion groups was sealed by a promise to work to have the Supreme Court justices overturn Roe v. Wade. As president, Trump’s three picks paved the way for the high court’s historic turnaround.
Since then, Trump’s public and private comments have been omnipresent. According to the New York Times, Trump feared that overturning Roe would hurt Republicans at the polls. (It ultimately did.) While former Vice President Mike Pence was eager to claim his role in abolishing abortion rights nationwide, Trump was sometimes reluctant. In a video announcing his views Monday, the former president once again boasted about his role in Roe’s demise.
The former president did not answer all the questions
Trump’s video also doesn’t fully address the subject.
The former president has not explicitly stated whether he would sign an abortion ban. More curiously, he failed to acknowledge the fact that as a resident of Florida, he will vote this November on whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
It remains to be seen whether he will reveal how he votes.
businessinsider
