Former President Donald Trump has again made it obvious that he is not pro-life. Not only that, but he will do everything in his power to convince the GOP that their electoral success depends on rejecting the pro-life cause. The evidence is clear: if the pro-life movement does not reject the lesser-of-two-evils mentality that has kept them shackled to the GOP for this long, they will go down with the ship (Photo Credit: CNN).
The statement
On Monday, in a meandering, disjointed and cowardly video posted on his beleaguered social media platform “Truth Social,” Trump said abortion policy should be left up to the states.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both,” Trump said. “And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”
[RELATED: Which GOP presidential candidate will stand for life?]
This, of course, is untrue. The GOP platform even says otherwise.
“Many states will be different,” Trump continued. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that is what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.”
Even ignoring the fact that the abortion rate appears to have increased under this state-level system, the United States tried leaving human rights to popular sovereignty before, and all it did was produce bloodshed and prolong human rights abuses. Then, as now, power was stacked against states that chose to respect human dignity.
We have already seen out-of-state dark money from the abortion lobby flood in by the millions to influence ballot initiatives, judicial activists striking down or placing injunctions on legitimate laws, and the executive branch doing all it can to protect abortion, something that we now have little reason to expect to change if Trump takes office.
As far back as his infamous 1999 interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump claimed to be “very pro-choice,” despite hating “the concept of abortion.” More recently, he suggested he could support a 15-week federal ban with exceptions in the cases of incest, rape and when the life of the mother is in danger.
Now, he has decided that abortion policy should be left to the states, and even then has taken muddled positions on state legislation and ballot initiatives. For example, he rejected a heartbeat bill in Florida. When asked if Arizona’s abortion law that just took effect was too strict, he said that it was, and that it “will be straightened out.”
Meanwhile, we can already see the chilling effect Trump’s position has had on MAGA-aligned politicians, with Arizona’s GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake changing her mind on abortion to side with Trump.
This latest iteration of Trump’s evolving views on the most fraught and critical issue of our time just shows he has no principled north star guiding him save that which he thinks will get him elected.
Strangely enough, most news outlets, whether left or right-leaning, have treated this statement as if it is not just the latest in a long line of contradictory and calculating moves by the former president.
The conflicted pro-life response
The institutional pro-life movement dealt with the issue in different ways, with some bemoaning the move while calling it politically savvy, and others sharply critiquing Trump’s obvious effort to shirk a leadership role on this pivotal issue.
In an interview with CBN News, Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, seemed to take the former stance.
“We don’t have 60 votes in the U.S. Senate right now to pass a federal abortion protection act,” Hawkins said. “The state legislatures are where we’re seeing the most gains. But that doesn’t put [Trump] out of doing more work.”
Hawkins cited a long list of demands on the former president should he get re-elected, that notably excluded federal abortion restrictions, but it is unclear why a clearly-wavering Trump would go along with any of these demands absent pressure from the pro-life movement in the form of withholding our votes from him in this election.
Meanwhile, Lila Rose, founder and president of the anti-abortion organization Live Action, took a sharper stance against Trump’s new position.
“Killing babies is always wrong,” Rose wrote in a long and deeply critical statement posted on her social media channels. “President Trump is not a pro-life candidate. He’s far less pro-abortion than Biden, but he supports killing some preborn children and will even make that his position in an attempt to get pro-abortion votes.”
Her comment sections were filled with individuals who made it pretty clear they thought that she should not criticize Trump unless she wanted him to “lose the election.”
The pro-life movement should aim to do more than just “not lose an election,” and make a sober assessment of the cost of backing Trump yet again as the “lesser-evil” candidate. We can debate the degree to which he is even a lesser-evil choice on any number of issues outside the issue of abortion. But Trump has now yet again made it painfully clear how willing he is to throw the pro-life movement under the bus on his way to political power.
Mike Vick is the national development director of the American Solidarity Party, treasurer of the Illinois Solidarity Party and coordinator of the Chicago chapter of the And Campaign. He is also a contributing editor for the Chicago Civic Update. He has held various political activism roles, including with the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America, Greenpeace in Chicago, SEIU Healthcare, Citizen’s Action Coalition, and others. This article was initially published in The American Commons. This article is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect that of The Collegiate Commons or its editorial staff as a whole.