(CP) Pro-life advocacy groups are offering differing reactions after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that abortion laws must be selected a state-by-state basis as the problem stays on the forefront of American politics.
Trump posted a video to Truth Social early Monday outlining his campaign’s position on the problem of abortion. He began by promising that “under my leadership, the Republican Party will at all times support the creation of strong, thriving and healthy American families,” adding, “We intend to make it easier for moms and families to have babies, not harder.”
After expressing support for in-vitro fertilization “in every state in America,” he described Democrats as “radical” on the problem of abortion because “they support abortion as much as and even beyond the ninth month” of pregnancy. He criticized the concept of “having an abortion within the later months” as “unacceptable” before proclaiming that whatever individual states settle on the problem of abortion “should be the law of the land” in each particular state.
“Many states will probably be different,” he predicted. “Many may have a unique variety of weeks or some may have more conservative [laws] than others.”
After stating his belief that “that is all concerning the will of the people,” he thanked the United States Supreme Court justices who authored the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision reversing the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide for “having the courage to permit this long-term, hard-fought battle to finally end.” He called on states to “do the best thing” and stressed his support for allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest in addition to instances wherein the mother is facing a medical emergency.
In a statement on Monday, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “We are deeply upset in President Trump’s position.”
Insisting that “unborn children and their moms deserve national protection and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry,” Dannenfelser maintained that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision “clearly allows each states and Congress to act.”
She added: “Saying the problem is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who’re working relentlessly to enact laws mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they are going to wipe out states’ rights.”
Dannenfelser vowed that leading as much as the 2024 presidential election, “SBA Pro-Life America and the pro-life grassroots will work tirelessly to defeat President [Joe] Biden and extreme congressional Democrats.”
In a press release shared with The Christian Post, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini agreed with Dannenfelser that “there stays an urgent must advocate for the unborn on the federal level.” She expressed concern that “pro-abortion politicians relentlessly work to enact federal laws just like the deceptively titled Women’s Health Protection Act which might cancel every [state’s] ability to limit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, and erases existing pro-life protections for vulnerable women and kids nationwide.”
“If they’ve their way, the entire nation will go the best way of the seven states and [Washington, D.C.] that already allow abortion for any reason, at any time while pregnant,” she warned. “The overwhelming majority of European nations reject such barbaric policies with minimum protections for kids after the primary trimester. We as a nation must work toward federal minimum protections for the unborn, and advocate for policies that support pregnant women and families in need.”
On the opposite hand, the Faith & Freedom Coalition shared a press release with The Christian Post proclaiming, “We appreciate his statement re-affirming his pro-life convictions.”
The organization also praised Trump as “essentially the most pro-life president in American history” who “kept his promise to appoint the conservative federal judges, which gave us the chance after a half-century of struggle to guard the unborn.”
The Faith & Freedom Coalition further outlined its plans to “proceed to work for the passage of laws on the state and federal level to guard as many children as we are able to” and “contact tens of tens of millions of voters of religion to teach them on where the candidates stand, including Joe Biden’s support for abortion on demand as a type of contraception, paid for with tax dollars.”
The advocacy group asserted that “Biden and the far Left are the true extremists, and their radical position on abortion just isn’t only morally repugnant but is way outside [the] mainstream.”
In a press release shared with The Christian Post, National Right to Life President Carol Tobias used Trump’s campaign statement on abortion as a chance to remind those that “in his first term, President Trump demonstrated extraordinary leadership and delivered historic results on behalf of vulnerable unborn children and their moms.” She also expressed gratitude to Trump for “ensuring that the wrongly decided Roe v. Wade was abandoned to the rubbish heap of history.”
“Thanks to President Trump, the American people and their elected representatives on the state and federal levels now have greater authority to find out abortion policy and pass meaningful protections for unborn children and their moms. Efforts on the federal level include undoing pro-abortion policies enacted by Joe Biden based on a wish list of the abortion industry.”
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins released a statement rejoicing that Trump didn’t embrace the push by some pro-life organizations and lawmakers to come back out in favor of a 15-week abortion ban.
“I’m pleased to see that President Trump listened to pro-lifers and is not going to permit a divisive late-term limit that some GOP insiders [had] been pushing, which might have embraced greater than 9 in 10 abortions, to be a distraction from Joe Biden’s abortion extremism,” she remarked.
Hawkins added, “We clearly have some work to do to teach the GOP on the lawlessness of a predatory IVF industry, whose own sloppiness has caused the painful headlines all of us have seen.”
Despite having some disagreement with Trump’s views on abortion, Hawkins said her organization “can work with an administration preparing to welcome the following generation, moderately than fast-tracking their deaths by abortion.”
