Trump Waffles on Florida’s Abortion Amendment
Pro-life Americans once had a staunch and vocal champion in former President Donald Trump, but his statements on abortion over the past year have given many cause for concern. Most recently, Trump said that Florida’s current six-week abortion ban is “too short” and that there “has to be more time” for a pregnant mother to seek to end her unborn baby’s life, indicating that he would support — and encourage others to support — a pro-abortion amendment on the Sunshine State’s ballot this November.
American conservatives were forced to settle for compromise-gurus, political hacks who would talk a big game without ever intending to play.
The Trump campaign quickly issued a statement to counter the backlash, saying, “President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.” The following day, Friday, Trump told reporters that he would, in fact, be voting against the abortion amendment. “The Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month,” the 45th President said. “Some of the states, like Minnesota and other states, have it where you can actually execute the baby after birth. And all of that stuff is unacceptable.”
While Trump’s pivot on the abortion amendment and his clarification that he will be opposing it is commendable, it did not occur in a vacuum. According to Paul Brown, policy director at Abolish Abortion Texas, Trump was responding to pressure from pro-lifers, who launched an impromptu grassroots campaign condemning his tacit endorsement of the abortion amendment.
Brown said that Trump’s clear opposition to Florida’s abortion amendment is “a sign that our pressure worked. It’s also a sign we need to keep going. Don’t let up.” He added that Trump “needs to start talking tough about abortion, and he needs to start now. Bottom line, he needs to acknowledge that it’s murder, that all of it is totally wrong and unacceptable, and he needs to reverse his previous statements about opposing a national ban, etc.”
Earlier this year, in an apparent bid to present himself as a more appealing choice to independent, moderate, and ex-Democrat voters, Trump announced that he would be leaving the issue of abortion to the states, following the demise of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Since then, Trump’s team led the GOP in removing pro-life commitments from the party’s 2024 platform and recently said that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
One of the reasons Trump soared to the White House in 2016 — and actually increased in popularity in 2020 — is because he gave a voice to the voiceless. For too long, American conservatives were forced to settle for compromise-gurus, political hacks who would talk a big game without ever intending to play. Candidates and politicians would talk of their faith, their morals, and their love of country, and then proceed to ignore every issue except foreign policy, foreign aid, and beefing up corporations.
Trump was, in his own words, “built different.” He put three Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who overturned Roe v. Wade. He signed an executive order protecting unborn children once a heartbeat is detected. He was the first U.S. President to make an appearance at the March for Life, not only acknowledging the campaign’s existence and importance, but encouraging his countrymen to defend unborn life.
This strategy — giving voice to the voiceless, standing up for the most vulnerable of Americans when no one else will — has been a winning strategy. Countless Christians are now dismayed and distraught over the former President’s cryptic (and, in some cases, painfully non-cryptic) comments on leaving unborn children to fend for themselves.
Trump would be wise to recognize that Americans do not want compromise. Certainly, the ravenous abortion cult will suffer no compromise, rendering Trump’s wheedling on the subject futile: he is only damaging his credibility with his own base. To ensure November 2024 is a MAGA landslide, Trump may want to remember the champion for life that he once was — and can be again.
READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy:
Disgracefully, a Catholic Cardinal Fronts for Abortion
The Atrocity Known as ‘Catholics for Kamala’
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