Pro-life groups internationally have been celebrating through the first days of the second presidency of Donald Trump after quite a few significant victories to the reason for the unborn within the US.
Trump has ordered several legislative actions to limit abortion and in addition to stop the prosecution of peaceful pro-life activists of their attempts to scale back the variety of babies being killed.
During the election, many pro-lifers were conflicted about whether to support Trump, although the pro-abortion alternative of the Democrats appeared worse. His apparent support for the best to abortion in some states, and a weakening of the Republican commitment to the cause, led to some pro-lifers arguing that they mustn’t vote for him, even when he was more likely to be less supportive of abortion rights than Kamala Harris, who made it a key feature of her campaign.
So many have been surprised and delighted at recent events. “You all know that I actually have truthfully criticised Trump on abortion,” said British pro-life campaigner Dr Calum Miller on X. “It is equally necessary to recognise and commend when he does the best thing. His first week has been great for the pro-life cause – and infinitely higher than the Democrats!”
He cited a post from LifeNews, a pro-life online publication, that praised nine actions against abortion taken by Trump in only his first week.
Released from prison
Possibly essentially the most significant is Trump’s pardon of 23 individuals who had been convicted of pro-life campaigning. Nine of those pardoned had chained themselves together in front of a Washington clinic in 2020 to stop people entering for an abortion. The leader of this group, Lauren Handy, was sentenced to 5 years. Others pardoned had also fallen foul of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which Trump has also instructed to be restricted in its use.
“They mustn’t have been prosecuted, lots of them are elderly people,” Trump told reporters as he signed the pardons. “This is an incredible honour to sign this.”
One of the imprisoned ‘DC Nine’, William Goodman, told reporters that he felt a “rush of joy” when hearing he can be released from his 27-month stay in prison.
He also thanked people for his or her support for him and his fellow prisoners.
“We really could tell that individuals were praying for us,” he said in a recorded message for LifeSite News. “There were some wonderful things that happened. People who got here to Bible studies. People who got here to Mass. People who were fighting with addictions who were experiencing God’s grace of healing.”
Changing laws
Trump has also made quite a few legislative changes: signing an executive order to limit gender ideology extremism that states human life begins at conception, and signing the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which states there is no such thing as a right to abortion. He has endorsed the congressional Born Alive Bill which protects babies who’re still holding on to life after an abortion. And he has enforced the ‘Hyde Amendment’ – which the Biden administration had effectively bypassed, which prevents US tax dollars getting used to fund abortions.
He has also restricted the US funding of abortion abroad by signing the Mexico City Policy, and directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio “to be certain that US taxpayer dollars don’t fund organizations or programmes that support or take part in the management of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization,” Reuters reported.
In further evidence of the ‘vibe shift’ exemplified by Trump’s decisive election victory – a perceived change from progressive, liberal politics towards more conservative goals – Sandra Merritt and David Daleiden, activists with The Center for Medical Progress, have just signed a cope with California prosecutors that they’ve hailed as a victory after being subjected to ‘lawfare’ since publishing evidence of the sale of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood in 2015.
Clear statements of support
Trump and lots of of his team have also made a series of positive statements in support of the pro-life cause. A video message of the President was played on the recent US March for Life, while Vice President JD Vance addressed the group and spoke strongly for the family and against a “culture of radical individualism”. “We are joyful to march for all times,” he told the marchers. “We are joyful to know that that picture on an ultrasound, that could be a picture of a baby with hopes and dreams and potential to return. It is a joy and blessing to fight for the unborn, to work for the unborn, and to march for all times.”
Robert F Kennedy Jnr told his Senate confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Health: “I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy.”
Caution urged
Trump is just not receiving unconditional support nevertheless. Another pro-lifer who warned about Trump before the election is Professor Edward Feser, who stays cautious. “Trump’s pardoning of the pro-life activists is a superb development and deserves praise, as do another, smaller recent developments,” he said on X. “But it is sort of absurd to pretend, as some are doing, that this someway shows that the concerns many pro-lifers had through the campaign were misplaced.
“For example, it doesn’t change the undeniable fact that Trump proposed an IVF mandate, supported keeping the abortion pill available, and actively opposed state-level six week abortion bans. And all of those policies are grave assaults on the unborn.”
Heather Tomlinson is a contract Christian author. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
