Critics of former President Donald J. Trump have suggested his approach to abortion is less than desired, citing clipped videos from an interview with Meet the Press, and fundamentally attempting to misrepresent his position and history on the subject.
The self-declared “most pro life president in US history” explained that he now prefers to leave the matter up to the states, and to “sit down with both sides… and negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”
This, after all, was the entire point of the Dobbs ruling, and indeed the U.S. Constitution. But critics who now demand a federal ban have turned on Trump in recent days. Those same critics, hardly coincidentally, are also vocal supporters of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential aspirations.
Using an issue like abortion in a primary against Trump is not just underhanded, it’s also embarrassing for them when confronted with Trump’s record.
1. Roe v. Wade
Trump’s most notable achievement on abortion actually came after he left office. Namely, to have the United States Supreme Court remove Roe v Wade‘s constitutional protections in June 2022, by having appointed several conservative justices to the court.
Indeed, Trump oversaw the appointment of over 150 conservative justices while President, including 43 U.S. Court of Appeals judges and 99 District Court judges. Roe’s overturning alone makes him the most pro-life president in U.S. history, but the ruling itself Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – itself guarantees the matter is returned to the people’s representatives, not federal agencies.
2. Removing Support and Funding for Planned Parenthood.
The Trump administration permitted states to defund Planned Parenthood of Title X funds in 2019, leading to a 63 percent reduction in “family planning” visits as well as a $809.4 million funding cut from the program. The move was recognized as a “major policy win for social conservatives looking to prohibit access to abortion.”
The former President overturned Obama-era and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rules to allow states to withhold or cut funding for Planned Parenthood within the first few months of his presidential term in 2017.
Trump also made it a requirement for health insurance companies to disclose if plans cover abortion and even canceled huge contracts for taxpayer-funded experimentation with body parts of aborted babies.
3. Department of Health for Human Services.
Trump introduced a new division at the HHS devoted to “conscience and religious freedom” in 2018, enabling healthcare workers to refuse to undertake specific roles, such as birth control or abortion, based on their religious convictions.
Under his oversight, the HHS published an updated five-year plan between 2018-2022, in which it dedicated its operations to “protecting the life of all Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.”
4. Changing America’s International Stance on Abortion.
The Trump administration cut off all overseas funding for abortions and announced that there is no international right to abortion at a United Nations meeting in 2019.
The U.S., under Trump’s leadership, further removed funding for the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has been “complicit in China’s oppressive population control activities, including birth limitation policies and forced abortions,” according to SBA Pro-life America.
That primary challengers would now try to hurl accusations of being “pro abortion” at Trump is self-evidently ludicrous. Especially since none of them were complaining when the above achievements were being racked up.
It speaks to something far darker at the heart of Never Trumpism, to use an issue like this as a cudgel against a man with the best record of any president, living or dead.
