Pro-Lifers Can Still Support Trump Despite His 6-Week Abortion Ban Comment
Only the practical prevail in the political fight for life.
On September 14th, Donald Trump was interviewed by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. The interview was “wide-ranging,” but it made headlines, because Trump remarked that the 6-week ban on abortion signed into law by Governor DeSantis was “horrible.” This has put more than a few pro-life voters in a tizzy, but it should not. Trump remains the most pro-life president of the modern era and the best candidate to protect the unborn in 2024.
First, the context is important. The clip contained eight minutes of Welker asking Trump about abortion—obviously probing in the hopes he would say something that could be inflammatory to one side or the other. Welker wanted him to make a radically pro-life statement or to disavow pro-lifers in some way. Either statement could then be run to damage him. If you watch the clip, Trump tried to avoid making either type of statement by focusing on the extreme abortion positions of the mainstream Left. It was when she finally brought up his opponent, DeSantis, that Trump jumped in with his quick critique.
Politics is the art of the practical, and Donald Trump understands a political reality: Life has been losing at the state level since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April provides a good example. Pro-abortion leftist Janet Protasiewicz framed the race as a referendum on abortion. Before Dobbs, focusing on abortion would have been a losing strategy for leftists, because pro-lifers were motived to defend life whereas pro-abortion voters felt protected by their “constitutional rights.” With Roe v. Wade gone, that group now feels stripped of that protection, and they are now the more motivated ones. In Wisconsin, the call went out to women and Gen Z voters to get to the polls to defend against radical right-wingers who are intent on ending all abortions. It worked, and it has been working in other races and other referendums across the country. Defending women against outright bans on abortions motivates a significant voting bloc.
All the platitudes of pro-life groups aside—we are the pro-life generation, etc.—the majority of Americans are tepidly pro-life. Most Americans are not in favor of late-term abortions, that is certain, but far fewer are comfortable with outright bans. There is confusion about when life begins (and what logically and morally follows from that) and a societal acceptance that rape and incest are so horrible that they provide a moral “get out of jail free” card.
I don’t think this is a good thing. I myself believe that life begins at conception, that human life is sacred, and that it should be protected. But the more moderate stance is the political reality.
Trump understands the political reality about voters, and we have to understand the political reality about Trump. Trump himself does not need to be perfectly pure on the life issue to be life’s most effective champion. We aren’t going to ban abortion entirely in the next few years, but, through practical political action, we can save many, many lives. Trump is absolutely the man to do that, as he has proved in spades.
In 2016, anti-Trumpers harped on Trump’s life credentials, constantly arguing he was not a true believer—he was not really pro-life in his heart. Perhaps Trump is not as purely pro-life as many of us are, and yet, Donald Trump became the greatest president for life in the modern era. Trump kept his promise to nominate pro-life justices to the United States Supreme Court, and it was thanks to the Trump majority that Roe v. Wade was finally overturned. Donald Trump was the only sitting president in the March for Life’s history to show up in person on the Mall in Washington, D.C. and address the pro-life crowds—other pro-life presidents supported at arm’s length, usually with a video message. We don’t know Donald Trump’s heart. I can concede he is almost certainly not as “extreme” as I am on the life issue, but I do know that as President he was a champion for life, and he can be that champion again.
Pro-life purists would do well to remember every victory on life has been incremental. When pro-lifers pass a 15-week ban, or a 6-week ban, no one condemns them for supporting a bill that only partially rather than fully limits abortion. We celebrate, because we understand the positive step forward and the many lives saved. We accept a political reality and work within that framework, hopefully moving ever closer to our ultimate goal. Perhaps Trump is not personally 100% pro-life himself, but, crucially, when he says he is pro-life, he has a track record of acting in accord with that position.
Anti-Trumpers delight in attempting to alienate pro-lifers from Donald Trump. But don’t lose perspective on what we are doing here. We are electing someone who listens to his base and believes in “promises made, promises kept.” And that means more pro-life victories if we put him back in the White House. We should also recognize Trump’s reluctance to support “extreme” life positions as a call to action on the local level. The aftermath of the Dobbs decision made it very clear that more work needs to be done in our communities to change hearts and minds. We should start with our friends and family, our communities, and even our churches. If we want our politicians to openly espouse absolute pro-life positions, we have to have an electorate that wants to defend life all the way.