It’s a rather open phenomenon that Donald Trump is running a nominally pro-life campaign at best and an actively pro-abortion campaign at worst, causing many Christians in the abortion abolitionist camp to withhold their support of the Republican president who once had the best record on the life issue. However, a recent question by Donald Trump gives the impression that Trump supports the pro-abortion amendment in Florida.
Trump wiggles, but the most coherent strain in his answer is an opposition to Florida’s current 6-week abortion bill, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed. Trump insists that more time is needed than that, and that was how he intended to vote.
Unsurprisingly, this answer did not sit well with many Christian leaders, as there is no strategic value in broadcasting support for abortion in Florida when many on the right, perhaps more than in 2016, are weary of supporting Trump. Abortion is unlikely to play a major role in a second Trump term, but the campaign cannot relent from addressing and capitulating on the issue.
Trump says he will vote yes an amendment that guarantees abortion til birth. My gosh. Aside from being morally wrong, it’s politically miscalculated I am fighting hard to get Christian women engaged in and enthusiastic about this election. Abortion is their biggest – though not only – issue. Doing everything I can to warn them against a Kamala presidency. Statements like this make that much, much more difficult
That “thump, thump” you just heard is the entire pro-life movement going under the bus. At this point, we can hardly overstate the scale of his betrayal of the pro-life cause, and he has taken the GOP with him. Things will never be the same after this.
The Trump campaign insists that Trump has not yet announced his voting intentions; however, the fact that he hasn’t is tacit support for the amendment. His unwillingness to support efforts to combat it hurt the fight. Governor Ron DeSantis is leading the effort on this issue.
Trump’s insistence on redressing the abortion issue only serves to hurt his campaign for two reasons. First, he’s hemorrhaging his base when he speaks on it. Second, when he’s talking about abortion, he’s not talking about immigration, the economy, avoiding WW3, or any other winning issue. This only causes Evangelicals to withhold their vote for him (rightly or wrongly), but it is a completely avoidable mistake.
