Former President Donald Trump is defending his anti-abortion record after being accused of betraying the pro-life movement, saying it has “tremendous negotiating power” thanks to the Trump-appointed justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Republican frontrunner for the 2024 nomination appeared eager to explain his position and reconcile with pro-life leaders flabbergasted when their longtime ally said Sunday that the heartbeat law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a “terrible mistake.”
Mr. DeSantis is a rival for the GOP nomination.
Mr. Trump reminded them that “I was able to do something that nobody thought was possible, end Roe v. Wade.”
“For 52 years, people talked, spent vast amounts of money, but couldn’t get the job done. I got the job done!” Mr. Trump said Tuesday on his Truth Social platform. “Thanks to the three great Supreme Court Justices I appointed, this issue has been returned to the States, where all Legal Scholars, on both sides, felt it should be. Now the Pro Life Community has TREMENDOUS NEGOTIATING POWER.”
At the same time, Mr. Trump predicted that Republicans would take a beating at the ballot box in 2024 unless they support exceptions for “Rape, Incest, and the Life of the Mother.”
“Without the exceptions, it is very difficult to win Elections, we would probably lose the Majorities in 2024, and perhaps the Presidency itself, but you must follow your HEART!” he said. “In order to win in 2024, Republicans must learn how to talk about Abortion. This issue cost us unnecessarily, but dearly, in the Midterms.”
Every state, including red states that prohibit abortion starting at conception, provides an exception to save the life of the mother.
Trump new statement on abortion. pic.twitter.com/r2QXjIQoTM
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 19, 2023
Mr. Trump has been widely hailed on the right as the most pro-life president in modern U.S. history, but his comments during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” stunned pro-life advocates and fueled speculation that his previous support was purely self-interested.
Nathanael Blake, postdoctoral fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, declared Tuesday that “pro-lifers cannot trust Trump.”
“Trump has decided that pro-life policies are political liabilities but is betting that pro-life voters will stick with him even as he publicly denounces their goals as ‘terrible,’” said Mr. Blake in an op-ed in The Federalist. “His offer in return for our continued support is — nothing. And he thinks we’ll take it. We will see if the pro-life movement has enough backbone left to prove him wrong,”
In his Sunday interview, Mr. Trump blasted Mr. DeSantis for signing a heartbeat bill banning most abortions after six to eight weeks’ gestation, saying “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
Mr. DeSantis, who is challenging Mr. Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nod, swung back Monday by warning pro-lifers that “he’s preparing to sell you out.”
Mr. Trump argued that Republicans should frame the issue as a choice between reasonable abortion restrictions and the post-viability abortions permitted in Democrat-run states.
“We have to expose the Democrats, like Crooked Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as being the true Radicals on the Abortion issue, in that they allow the killing of babies in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th months, and even after birth,” Mr. Trump said in his Tuesday blast.
He concluded that “with Roe v. Wade no longer, the power to negotiate is with the Pro Life Movement, not the Radical Left Democrats who are so willing to destroy Life!”
The Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in its June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, sending decision-making on abortion back to the states.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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