September 19, 2023
Former President Donald Trump recently sat down with NBC’s Meet the Press for a lengthy interview on everything from foreign policy to his pending indictments. At one point in the nearly 80-minute interview, he gave a shocking answer to a question asked about abortion:
“I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t. I mean, DeSanctis is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban.
I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we’ll come up with a number, but at the same time, Democrats won’t be able to go out at six months, seven months, eight months and allow an abortion. And Kristen, you have to look at this, because you said “no.” You have some states that are allowed to kill the child after birth, and you can’t allow that.”
President Trump rightly identified that abortion is allowed through all nine months in several states and Washington D.C., and the media knows it. However, the former President’s belief that the Democrats would be willing to negotiate on the issue isn’t proven by reality or facts. As we said in a separate Students for Life Action blog, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
As it is, the country is already packed to the brim with disappointing Republicans who pay lip service to protecting the preborn but do nothing substantive to save lives. Which is why the Pro-Life Leaders are looking for a fearless champion for women and their children – born and preborn This interview was especially disappointing, given President Trump’s remarkable success in nominating and placing Supreme Court Justices to help get Roe overturned – he was instrumental in saving millions of preborn lives.
Yet, this isn’t even the first time this week that the President has urged Republicans to back off the pro-life issue generally. The NBC interview comes on the heels of a speech at the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee in Washington DC on September 16, where he said that
“We can win elections on this issue, but it’s very delicate and explaining it properly is an extremely important thing. You have to be able to speak and explain it properly. A lot of politicians who are pro-life don’t know how to discuss this topic,” Trump told the leadership summit of the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee in Washington, D.C.
Trump said politicians “don’t know how to talk about it” and cautioned that “if they don’t speak about it correctly, they’re not going to win.”
And earlier this year, President Trump urged former candidate for Governor Tudor Dixon to “talk differently about abortion” and back off from taking a strong stand for the lives and human rights of the preborn.
This is part of a troubling trend from the former President and his campaign team advising him. But to be fair, President Trump isn’t the only candidate who has taken sub-optimal positions on abortion at the Federal level. To summarize the views on abortion from the candidates who have made the cut-off of the next debate, as covered in an article from the Associated Press:
- Ron DeSantis: During his term as governor, Florida passed an abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy. But DeSantis has suggested that individual states should decide the issue.
- Vivek Ramaswamy: The biotech CEO has said he would not support a federal ban on abortion because” the federal government should stay out of it.” He has voiced support for states that have passed six-week bans.
- Mike Pence: The former vice president supports a federal ban on abortion at six weeks and has advocated pulling from the market one of two widely used abortion pills.
- Tim Scott: He has signaled support for a federal ban on the practice for as early as 12 weeks and also support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would ban abortions nationally after 15 weeks.
- Nikki Hayley: Haley has not specified a time frame for after how many weeks she feels abortion should be outlawed, noting that passing such a measure would be highly unlikely without more Republicans in Congress, and advocating for “consensus” around the issue. She said she would “absolutely” sign a 15-week federal ban.
- Chris Christie: The former two-term New Jersey governor has argued that the issue of abortion should be carried out in the states, not at the federal level. Christie has said that “the federal government should not be involved unless and until there’s a consensus around the country from the 50 states making their own decisions about what it should be.”
There was one last part of the interview, specifically near the end, that stood out:
“From a pure standpoint, from a legal standpoint, I think it’s probably better, but I can live with it either way. It’s much more important, the number of weeks is much more important. But something will happen with the number of weeks, the amount of time, after which you can’t do it. And you know what? The most — the most powerful people that are anti-abortion are okay with that now. And you know what? They weren’t okay with that even a year ago.”
At Students for Life of America, we want to be perfectly clear – we are not, and never have been, accepting of arbitrary time-frames for abortion, including the seemingly widely accepted standard of 15 weeks. There’s no milestone that occurs at this point that justifies the timeframe – no key point of development, no specific making of personhood. Life begins at conception; this is an undisputed fact. And anything that terminates a defenseless and innocent life after it begins is by definition murder.
We encourage all the candidates running for President to remember that – and to remember that we will not compromise on this issue and our vote is hard earned, not freely given.
To read about the Pro-Abortion Extremism of the Joe Biden administration, click HERE.
