Trump mends fences with pro-life leaders

Former President Donald J. Trump met with several pro-life leaders to heal an apparent rift that developed last month. He had said that abortion was strictly a State matter, and several in the pro-life community took exception to that.

Trump meets with pro-life leadership

According to Pro-life Update, President Trump met with:

• Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America (SBA),
• Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council, and
• Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

At that meeting, according to a statement by Ms. Dannenfelser, Trump totally deprecated the apparent Democratic Party position on abortion. That position would appear to be:

1. Abortion, up to the moment of birth, for any reason or no reason,
2. Taxpayer subsidy for same, and:
3. In many cases, the death of an already-born child.

That last probably refers to a child, removed in the course of a late-term abortion, that somehow survives. The apparent current standard of care is to let such a child die – which some might deem equivalent to the ancient Roman practice of exposure at birth.

Trump also reiterated his opposition to most late-term abortion procedures. However, he held out for allowing abortions in the case of rape, incest, or a life-threatening maternal condition or complication.

Source of the dispute

In April of 2023, Trump risked losing pro-life support after saying that abortion must remain a State issue. The debate became more acute following the decision of the Supreme Court disavowing a federal Constitutional right to abortion. (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. ____ (2022).) Dannenfelser disputed the notion that Dobbs put the abortion issue in State hands, and that only the States may make or enforce any laws on the subject.

In point of fact, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his concurrence, opined that Supreme Court Justices should not act like philosopher-kings. But even that concurrence would take the courts out of it – but not Congress. Dannenfelser would like to see, at minimum, a federal statute forbidding abortion beyond the fifteenth week. This, in fact, was the Mississippi law that Thomas Dobbs, Commissioner of Health, was defending in the federal courts.

Other pro-life leaders have recently proposed amending the Constitution to recognize pre-born children as Constitutional persons. Congress last tried that in 1982, at the behest of President Ronald W. Reagan. But that proposal failed of the necessary supermajorities in the House and Senate.

CNAV has observed before that the pro-life movement’s largest obstacle is the lack of religious grounding among voters. This in turn results from lack of religious education in school.