The Intersection of Trump, Abortion, and the Pro-Life Movement

By Samuel Sey, Op-ed contributor

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on September 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The summit featured remarks from multiple 2024 Republican Presidential candidates making their case to the conservative audience members. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s biggest enemy isn’t the Democrats, the media, or the deep state. Donald Trump’s biggest enemy is Donald Trump.

There isn’t a single person more committed to disparaging his greatest accomplishment — helping to overturn Roe v. Wade — than Trump himself.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” yesterday, Trump suggested he wouldn’t sign a federal bill that would completely ban abortion. When the interviewer asked him if he would sign a federal bill banning abortion at 15 weeks, he refused to answer — saying, “I would sit down with both sides (Republicans and Democrats) and negotiate something. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t.”

He also said he doesn’t support Ron DeSantis’ Heartbeat Protection Act (a bill that bans most surgical abortions in Florida after 6 weeks gestation), saying: “I think what he did is a terrible thing.”

Trump’s words surprised many of his evangelical and conservative voters, but this is just the latest in a series of attacks against the pro-life movement. After the 2022 midterm elections, Trump blamed pro-life Republicans for the party’s poor results. Since then, he’s consistently downplayed the injustice of abortion throughout his campaign.

This is particularly disappointing because Trump is the reason why Republicans have been able to pass many pro-life bills over the last year. He kept his promise from the previous presidential campaign that he would nominate pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court. Those Justices made up half of the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Trump’s latest position on abortion doesn’t change the great things he did for pre-born babies. Next to his crucial role in helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, he reinstated the Mexico City policy, stripped Title X funding from Planned Parenthood, and he is the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life.

However, despite what some of his followers want us to believe, that doesn’t justify his depraved words. Trump’s words suggest he’s more interested in pleasing Democrats than protecting children from murder.

Overturning Roe v. Wade was a vital step, but it wasn’t the final step. It made pro-life bills like DeSantis’ Heartbeat Protection Act possible. But they aren’t the final step either. Republicans should introduce pro-life bills at every opportunity until every unwanted baby is protected from murder.

Shamefully, however, some of Trump’s most loyal followers — including some Christians — are deflecting to blame the pro-life movement. One of their many absurd excuses for Trump is that his position on abortion is identical to the pro-life movement’s incremental approach to abolishing abortion. So according to them, pro-life people who criticize Trump are hypocrites.

But that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s completely illogical. If Trump’s position on abortion was identical to the pro-life movement’s, he wouldn’t be criticizing the pro-life movement.

After all, his words were in response to the pro-life movement’s heartbeat laws. Also, there’s a major difference between introducing incremental bills that will receive enough votes to pass and only signing bills that will make Democrats happy — as if any pro-life bill will make the Democrats happy.

So Trump’s latest position on abortion isn’t identical to the pro-life movement’s position on abortion. Which is why the pro-life movement has denounced his words.

Lila Rose from Live Action said, “[Trump’s words] are pathetic and unacceptable … Trump should not be the GOP nominee.”

I agree. I hope Trump’s anti-abortion voters also agree.

Originally published at Slow to Write.

Samuel Sey is a Ghanaian-Canadian who lives in Brampton, a city just outside of Toronto. He is committed to addressing racial, cultural, and political issues with biblical theology, and always attempts to be quick to listen and slow to speak.