Over the course of the campaign, as he’s internalized the idea that opposition to abortion is a drag on Republicans, President Trump has been tempted to revisit his old pro-choice positions. Up until now, however, he has calibrated his statements in the way that could still be defensible from a pro-life perspective.
That all changed today, however, with a single post on Truth Social:
He continues:
The latest Truth Social post is different. The idea that his administration would be “great” for “reproductive rights” is hard to interpret in any other way than as an affirmatively pro-choice statement. By the common usage of the term, if you support reproductive rights it means you want broader access to abortion.
For an account of how the pro-life position was excluded from the 2024 GOP platform, see “Is the Republican Party Becoming Pro-Choice,” First Things. Included in the piece is this observation:
Trump claims to hold a federalist position on abortion, but in practice he condemns only states that pass pro-life protections—such as Florida—while saying nothing about states with permissive abortion regimes. During the presidential debate, he expressed his support for the abortion pill; Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, a potential running mate, followed suit in a Meet the Press interview.
For addtiional articles on the exclusion of the pro-life position from the 2024 GOP platform, see:
Asked later that day if the post represented a change in his stance on abortion, Trump gave a rambling answer in which he reiterated his desire to bring the issue to the states. “I’m very strong on women’s reproductive rights, the IVF, very strong. I mean, we’re leaders in it, and I think people are seeing that,” he said at a press conference in Nevada.
Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” about GOP lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who would want Trump to advocate for and sign an abortion ban, Vance told moderator Kristen Welker that Trump has “explicitly” said he would veto a ban.
“I mean, if you’re not supporting it, as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” Vance argued.
If you consider the game from Trump’s point of view, embracing social leftism might be rational. This is because Trump knows that the leading voices of purported social conservatism would never abandon him. From his perspective, they have no leverage. And he’s right. By becoming unabashedly pro-choice, Trump plays to the center of the electorate without sacrificing his base, because there is nothing he could do to sacrifice his base.
In Michigan on Thursday, former President Donald Trump promised to subsidize or mandate insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization treatment and suggested he would vote for a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would overturn the state’s ban on abortions after six weeks of gestation.
“I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time, and I’ve told them that I want more weeks,” Trump told NBC News during an interview before a campaign event in Potterville, southwest of Lansing. He was pressed on how he would vote on the ballot measure, which would amend the Florida constitution to protect the right to abortion before fetal viability but contains broad exceptions that some have claimed could allow abortion through all nine months. The Republican nominee replied he would “be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Florida has a six-week ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the mother’s life. A ballot initiative would restore a Roe-like sweeping right to abortion that extends throughout pregnancy. Asked how he would vote today, Donald Trump said he would vote that six weeks is not enough time. His campaign later explained that his statement did not imply that he would vote yes.
Trump also announced that if elected, he would have either the government or insurers (which is to say taxpayers, workers, and Americans generally) pay for in vitro fertilization, which inevitably will mean the deliberate destruction of many more human embryos.
The long-term consequence for the pro-life movement covering for Trump, rather than calling him out, will not just be the massive repetitional hit of continuing to ally with someone who is uniquely odious to many college-educated suburban women. It will be that he is realigning the G.O.P. along his effectively pro-choice personal stances. Republican House members will be put under tremendous political pressure to go along with Trump’s stance when they get back from recess, according to reporting from Politico’s Sarah Ferris and Olivia Beavers.
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If there are those in the pro-life movement want to argue the short-term consequences of a Harris administration are so great that they outweigh the long-term damage posed by Trump, they are free to. But too many pro-lifers greet each time they have been thrown under the bus by Trump with more justifications and excuses. They will have to ask themselves at what point having to rely on a likely razor-thin Republican Senate majority to forestall much of the policy damage will be worth the benefits of starting with a clean slate in 2028. For some of us, that hour seems to have arrived.
