DONALD TRUMP ON LATE-TERM ABORTION: PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN?

National Review

 

Trump on Late-Term Abortion: Promises Made, Promises Broken?

By JOHN MCCORMACK

April 21, 2023 3:28 PM

 

As president, Donald Trump was committed to ending ‘painful late-term abortions nationwide,’ but his campaign now says abortion policy should be left to the states.

 

In September 2016, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump made a number of promises to pro-life leaders and voters. One of those promises was that, if elected president, he was committed to “signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide.”

 

That legislation, also known at the time as the “20-week abortion ban,” was supported by almost all congressional Republicans, as well as Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. When the GOP House passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (which Senate Democrats filibustered), President Trump expressed strong support for it.

 

But as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination for a third time in 2024, Donald Trump may be abandoning his commitment to signing any national limit on late-term abortions. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump’s “campaign did not directly answer whether Trump agreed with the six-week ban in Florida or what policies he would support nationally but instead said Trump believes the issue should be left up to individual states.” Moreover, in private conversations with advisers, Trump has reportedly said: “‘States’ rights’ . . . adding his assessment that they should not talk about it.”

 

“President Donald J. Trump believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Post in a statement. On Friday, National Review asked Cheung via email if Trump still supports the federal late-term abortion limit he backed as presidential candidate and president; Trump’s spokesman has not yet replied.

 

Trump’s apparent embrace of a “states only” policy on abortion prompted a furious backlash from pro-life leaders. Lila Rose of Live Action tweeted on Thursday: “Donald Trump has DISQUALIFIED himself from the nomination of our nation’s pro-life political party by calling the human right to life merely a ‘state-level’ issue.” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, issued a statement on Thursday calling Trump’s position “morally indefensible”:

 

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President Trump’s assertion that the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion solely to the states is a completely inaccurate reading of the Dobbs decision and is a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold. Life is a matter of human rights, not states’ rights. Saying that the issue should only be decided at the states is an endorsement of abortion up until the moment of birth, even brutal late-term abortions in states like California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey. The only way to save these children is through federal protections, such as a 15-week federal minimum standard when the unborn child can feel excruciating pain.

 

We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to embrace at a minimum a 15-week national standard to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact further protections.

 

The Supreme Court made clear in its decision that it was returning the issue to the people to decide through their elected representatives in the states and in Congress. Holding to the position that it is exclusively up to the states is an abdication of responsibility by anyone elected to federal office. This holds especially true for the president, more than any other federal official, because he or she has a responsibility to forge national consensus and progress on the most egregious human rights violation of our time.

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The national ban on late-term abortion — at 15 weeks of pregnancy — that pro-life groups are now calling for sets the limit somewhat earlier than the late-term ban that Trump endorsed as presidential candidate and president. One reason the line was initially drawn at 20 weeks after conception (22 weeks of pregnancy) is because that’s right at the start of viability and therefore stood a better chance of being upheld by the Supreme Court.

 

With Roe gone, pro-life groups saw 15 weeks as a limit that could save more lives and still garner sufficient popular support nationwide. Gallup polling has shown that less than a third of Americans support elective abortion in the second trimester, which starts at the 13th week of pregnancy, and many European countries restrict abortion after the first trimester. At 15 weeks of pregnancy, it is difficult for many pro-choice voters to deny the humanity of the unborn child: As one maternity website notes, “your baby is looking more like a little person, with eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, nails, hair, and well-defined fingers and toes.” At that point, “If you could see inside your womb, you’d catch your baby sucking a thumb, yawning, stretching, and making faces.”

 

Pro-life groups argue for a federal minimum standard not only because they believe it would save lives, but because they believe it will help pro-life candidates contrast their position with the extremism of Democrats, who want to create a national right to taxpayer-funded abortion and elective late-term abortion (for reasons of mental or emotional health).

 

During the 2016 campaign, one of Donald Trump’s most effective moments on the debate stage came when he said: “With what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now, you can say that that’s okay, and Hillary can say that that’s okay, but that’s not okay with me.”

 

Trump is far from the only Republican who has backed away from a federal limit on late abortions because of political considerations. While no Senate Republican has (to my knowledge) argued that the late-term-abortion limit he once supported is unconstitutional, many have argued it’s best left up to the states for prudential reasons.

 

But there was little evidence from the 2022 elections that a 15-week limit on abortion would hurt GOP candidates for federal office. Florida senator Marco Rubio supported the 15-week bill during his campaign and won reelection by 16 points. GOP Senate candidate Ted Budd co-sponsored the 15-week bill and won an open seat in North Carolina by three points. Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s support for a 15-week limit is not the reason he underperformed by nine points compared with Governor Brian Kemp, who had signed a six-week state limit into law.

 

Many blue states allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason, a policy that is tantamount to infanticide — and Democrats seek to effectively make that the law in all 50 states. Democrats are now a handful of House seats and one Senate seat away from nuking the filibuster and enacting their radical abortion bill. There’s no chance of enacting a late-term-abortion limit in the next several years because Republicans won’t eliminate the Senate filibuster. But many legislative battles take many years. And for candidates for federal office, it is harder to argue against late-term abortion if there’s nothing at all they’re willing to do to stop it.