Former President Donald Trump has gained traction with several pro-life groups in his bid for the GOP nomination despite the movement’s heavy criticism of him over the last several months for changing his position on abortion, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has said in the past that he would not support a 15-week federal abortion ban and in September he claimed that he did not “frankly care” whether there was a federal or state ban on abortion, according to Axios. Pro-life groups such as Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America and Students for Life (SFL) had called out Trump for failing to support the pro-life movement but recently stated that while he is not the most ideal candidate, the former president has gotten the job done in the past, according to the Post. (RELATED: Court Rules That Federal Emergency Room Law Does Not Require Doctors To Perform Abortions)
“Is he the most pro-life person? No,” Kristan Hawkins, president of SFL, told the Post. “But he keeps his deals.”
In January 2023, Trump claimed that Republicans who supported “no exceptions” for abortion laws had cost the GOP the midterm elections, prompting heavy criticism from pro-life groups, who said the former president was “way out of line.” Trump also went after fellow presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in May for signing a six-week abortion law, arguing that pro-lifers thought it was “too harsh.”
Pro-life supporters attend a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on June 24, 2023. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, called out both Trump and DeSantis in August for failing to commit to a minimum standard of a 15-week federal ban on abortion if elected president, according to the Washington Examiner. Dannenfelser, however, told the Post that despite this, as a result of Trump’s first term, he has “built an enormous amount of trust with pro-life voters, as his presidency was the most consequential in American history for the pro-life cause.”
Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson, told the Post in a written statement that the former president has told Republicans that they “must learn to talk about this critical issue the right way and remind voters that it is Democrats who are the extreme ones on abortion.”
“He appointed strong Constitutionalist federal judges and Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, which others have tried to do for over 50 years,” Cheung wrote.
The Trump campaign, SFL and SBA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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