I can’t imagine a worse time in my life to be an ardent pro-life voter. There’s no denying the obvious: Abortion is popular in America.
Every time abortion has been on the federal ballot, it has been overwhelmingly rejected.
Now, Donald Trump and JD Vance are trying to expand their coalition for victory in November, swinging in a direction not very different from the stance many moderate Democrats took on the abortion issue in the 1990s. From an ambiguous statement by former President Trump that his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” to Senator Vance saying Trump would veto a national abortion ban, the Trump-Vance team is doing the opposite of what pro-lifers (who make up a large part of the Republican coalition) expect them to do. Trump has made other discouraging comments elsewhere.
Trump and Vance deserve to be heard by the pro-life community. In the unlikely event that anyone associated with their campaign sees this, please read this sentence slowly: The Trump campaign will only lose support if it backs down on the abortion issue.
On the one hand, Trump and Vance are doing perfectly rational things. They want to win, and how do you win? By loosening your grip on the issues that are costing you votes. It’s a rationally motivated act to look at the popularity of abortion in America and think, “We can’t be on the wrong side of the majority.”
I understand it, even if I reject it.
But we should be clear about what is really at stake: Trump is cheating the voters who have the most reasons to vote for him and who should stay home in 2024 because of him.
Trump was a historic pro-life president in his first term. We don’t need to list all the reasons why. He deserves our gratitude for what his administration has accomplished. He also deserves to hear the reality that there are many, many pro-life voters in America for whom this issue alone is the moral red line. If Trump is seen as someone who will positively expand abortion access, it will have a massive electoral impact. I know many devout evangelical Christians who are staunch conservatives who will not vote for Trump if he is seen as a positive pro-abortion advocate.
The betrayal in current events has two sides.
Trump’s calculation is a moral betrayal, a betrayal of the core of the Republican Party’s original commitment to oppose “barbarism” (as its original 1856 platform on slavery put it) when it comes to human dignity. Human dignity is a principle that should override majority opinion.
There is also a sensible betrayal. Trump and his team are no fools, and they should know better than to use careless rhetoric when no change in federal policy is in sight. Their language demoralizes and suppresses their base while accomplishing little in the way of actual electoral gains. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have the votes at the federal level to make their wishes on abortion come true. Even if there were no filibuster tactic, there wouldn’t be 50 Republican votes for federal legislation, as many Republicans take a federalist approach. This is not to dismiss Trump and Vance’s mistake in skirting the issue, but the federal legislation aspect is largely irrelevant — for now.
Trump and Vance must know that they cannot avoid protecting the unborn. That would be disastrous and demoralizing for a large portion of those inclined to vote for them. It is one thing to recognize legislative realities, but quite another to talk about them with impudence and indifference.
Trump’s trivialization and obfuscation of the abortion issue and the resulting humiliation of his pro-life supporters is deeply misguided. This triangulation serves only to suppress the pro-life electorate. The many Christians who held their noses and voted for Trump because he promised to be pro-life and not pursue a progressive agenda are now faced with a Donald Trump who has the same tawdry character and now sounds like a progressive. Mr. Trump: Please do better. And let’s face the misperceptions head on: No Trump-skeptical voter is going to look at his loosening of abortion policies and think, “Yeah, that’s what’s going to make me vote for him.” Trump’s attempt to be more “moderate” on the abortion issue will not win him any recognition among the determined who hate him.
My suggestion is that Trump needs to do something to allay pro-life concerns. He needs to talk about what the executive branch can do to protect life. He needs to provide a list of appointed judges who represent pro-life jurisprudence. He needs to use his position of power to talk about why families, babies, and the culture of life are better and more beautiful than a culture of sterility, infertility, and death. He needs to distance himself from the pro-abortion agenda of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Trump had better offer something positive, or he will once again be his own worst enemy. The parable of Donald Trump is one of a man who turns victory into defeat. Even if Trump and Vance want to sidestep the abortion issue and move it to the state level, they should not give the wrong side the rhetorical victories that abortion advocates so desperately want. Regardless of debates about the role of federal and state governments, the argument should always be that promoting a culture of life through love for children is a sign of a decent and humane nation.
