Thursday, July 18, 2024
The Republicans and the Pro-Life Cause in the Age of Trump
I published the following reflection a couple of months ago as part of a First Things magazine symposium on politics after the Dobbs decision. Regrettably, what I said has been fully confirmed by the events unfolding as part of the Republican National Convention, especially the re-drafting of the Republican Party's platform.
Donald Trump, in announcing his support for the IVF industry and his rejection of any federal legislation to protect babies from the lethal violence of abortion, has made it clear that he is not pro-life. Nor is he exactly pro-choice. He is, quite simply, pro-Trump. As anyone who has followed Trump’s career knows, the most fundamental thing about him is that he is transactional. The art of living is the “art of the deal.”
Trump’s message to his pro-life supporters boiled down to (and here I’ll translate for you), “Hey look, gals and guys, I upheld my end of the deal I made with you in 2016. Roe v. Wade is gone.” But now, with the demise of Roe activating the Democratic Party’s extremely pro-abortion base, a politician’s being genuinely pro-life—working for actual legal protection for unborn babies—appears to be a heavy political liability. So, Trump’s message is this: “I’ve got to get elected to save the country, so I’m not going to do anything to protect unborn babies. Whatever the states want to do about abortion—permit it, forbid it, permit it up to fifteen weeks, permit it up to birth—is fine with me.”
Trump has, effectively, endorsed Stephen A. Douglas’s concept of “popular sovereignty.”
So, it is incumbent on pro-life Americans to acknowledge the tragic fact that we do not have a pro-life presidential candidate representing a major political party in 2024. Trump has made it clear that he won’t help the pro-life cause, even incrementally, and Biden is utterly beholden to the abortion lobby.
Where does that leave the pro-life movement?
Whether Trump wins or loses, the future of the pro-life cause depends on whether there is a prominent Republican leader who is prepared to do today what Abraham Lincoln did in the face of the barbarism so fiercely defended by the Democrats of his day: defend the dignity of all members of the human family. With the pro-abortion base of the Democratic party so energized, and with a compliant media doing their bidding at every turn, it would take genuine courage—and high statesmanship—for a politician to provide the leadership that our cause needs if it is to weather hard times and build a broader base of support.
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2024/07/the-republicans-and-the-pro-life-cause-in-the-age-of-trump.html