While Republicans’ presumed nominee, Donald Trump, distances himself from a nationwide abortion ban, anti-abortion leaders are cautioning Republicans against removing the policy from the party platform at next month’s GOP convention.
Established during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and maintained during his reelection campaign four years later, the current platform demands that Congress outlaw abortions beyond 20 weeks of gestation and that the US Constitution be amended to grant the unborn the same rights as a person.
It ought to remain that way, according to Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
According to Dannenfelser, “our expectation is that the GOP platform will continue to unequivocally call for national protections for unborn children, rooted in the 14th Amendment.” This statement was made in an interview with AWN. “If the GOP were to soften its position on life, it would be giving up on protecting the inherent worth and dignity of every individual.”
Former president’s close associate and Faith and Freedom Coalition chairman Ralph Reed had the same view last week. While participating in a Washington Post-hosted virtual event, Reed openly criticized the Trump campaign, saying, “to proceed with great caution in sending any message of vacillation or retreat when it comes to the defense of the innocent unborn.”
To “signal retreat on the sanctity of innocent human life in its platform” would be “morally sound but politically advisable,” he added.
For remark, AWN has reached out to Trump’s campaign.
The campaign is counting on the party to vote on a platform “that reflects the policy and vision and agenda of President Trump,” according to a top Trump aide who spoke with AWN.
In some way, shape, or form, the platform is constantly evolving. “The entire thing happens during the pre-convention executive sessions,” the advisor continued. “To ensure that the convention goes well and that the nominee reflects the leadership of the party, we will collaborate with the delegations and representatives on each committee that needs to complete their tasks.”
The concerns reflect the worry that the party Trump has taken over will be impacted by his about-face on abortion.
Trump withdrew his support for stringent anti-abortion legislation after seeing the political tide turn against Republicans following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Trump enraged some anti-abortion activists and Christian leaders by remaining silent during the Republican presidential primary, when his opponents courted evangelical supporters by advocating for federal prohibitions on the operation.
Then, after clinching the Republican nomination, Trump stated that states should have the last say on abortion rights. In April, he completely reversed his 2016 presidential campaign stance by saying he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban even if it were to pass Congress.
This change by the former president coincides with the party’s preparation of its first formal stance on abortion since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, which abolished the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022 (a triumph made possible by Trump’s reconstruction of the US Supreme Court). However, a string of defeats, including a recent losing streak in state ballot referendums, has left Republicans and anti-abortion groups reeling and unable to identify their next target.
Efforts by the federal government to limit abortion have been supported by the Republican platform that was voted on at the party’s quadrennial convention for the last forty years. These efforts have taken the form of laws like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortions at 20 weeks into the pregnancy, or the 14th Amendment, which protects the unborn child.
A Republican presidential candidate who appears to disagree with the party platform on abortion is not unprecedented; Trump is just the latest example. Although they did not make it into the party’s platform, 2008 presidential candidate John McCain and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney both backed exceptions for rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother. In 2016, Trump too sought comparable exclusions but was denied by his party.
“We hear this every four years: a battle between the candidate and the party,” stated Carol Tobias, head of the National Right to Life Committee. A lot of people talk about it in the media, but nothing really changes. This year, I do not anticipate any significant changes.
We are well aware that a decision on this will not be made in the near future. This will take time. The pro-life movement has a long-term perspective because its members have been working to reverse Roe for nearly half a century.
If those who are against abortion had their way this time, the Republican Party’s stance on the topic would be more diametrically opposed to its platform on abortion than it has been since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which made abortion a national issue.
Both openly and privately, Trump has blasted his party’s post-Dobbs politics, pointing the finger to abortion as the reason the GOP had a disappointing showing in the 2022 midterms. His efforts to reposition himself coincide with Democrats and President Joe Biden’s stated intention to criticize Trump for his pivotal role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which enabled states such as Florida and Texas to enact nearly complete bans on the operation.
The Biden campaign criticized the former president earlier this week for accepting an audience from the Danbury Institute, a collection of Christian groups, which seeks to outlaw abortion nationwide. Trump was getting ready to speak to them.
“Trump boasts about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, believes that the severe state bans that have recently passed as a result of him are ‘working very brilliantly,’ and, if given the opportunity, he will sign a national ban on abortion,” stated Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Biden. “This November, these are the stakes.”
“I expect to be fighting your ideals “side-by-side for your next four years,” Trump said in his brief recorded remarks to the groups.
He gave the group his word that these would be their “golden years” because they would return unlike any other.
Trump may not have stated his platform position yet, but his campaign has already taken command of the Republican Party on almost every front as it heads into the convention. Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, and Michael Whatley, a longtime leader of the Republican Party in North Carolina, are the party’s co-chairs, whom Trump personally selected. His former ambassador to Luxembourg, Randy Evans, along with key Trump administration official Russell Vought and Phyllis Schlafly Eagles president Ed Martin, author of 2016’s “The Conservative Case for Trump,” will head the platform committee.
Each state and territory will send two delegates to the party’s convention in Milwaukee, and they will serve on the platform committee. When the full convention convenes the week of July 15, they will have presented their findings from their meeting early next month.
Reed informed AWN that he has had platform discussions with the Trump campaign and anticipates that the party’s stance would continue to be “unapologetically pro-life”; however, he refrained from directly stating that he has secured that assurance.
Even so, he maintained that Trump’s most recent position is very similar to the party’s platform.
With no majority in Congress, “the president’s position simply reflects the short term political reality for both sides: Neither side has the votes to pass federal legislation that reflects their values and aspirations,” Reed explained. Everything is happening on a state level. In the grand scheme of things, whichever political party manages to win over the state will have a leg up when it comes to getting their way in Washington.
