Pollsters and abortion activists constantly twist narratives to paint pro-lifers as the villains in the fight for life, but leading 2024 presidential contender former President Donald Trump correctly identified Democrats as the real “radicals” for advancing an abortion until birth agenda.
“In the debate with Hillary Clinton, I said, you know, she’s willing to rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month. And you know, I never heard this. It happened to me. It just came to me during that debate. I didn’t go out there thinking I was gonna say that, and she winced,” Trump said during his Fox News town hall on Wednesday night. “Nobody wants to see that happening after a certain period of time. Nobody.”
A majority of U.S. adults oppose killing unborn babies through all nine months of pregnancy. Yet, Democrats spent the last few years making legalizing unlimited abortion through birth a pillar of their party.
“They’re the radicals because they’re willing to kill the baby in eight months, nine months, or even after birth,” Trump continued. “If you remember the former governor of Virginia where he said, you kill the baby after the ninth month, or even after it’s [born], you set the baby aside.”
There is a clear disconnect between American voters’ strong feelings about ending life in the womb late in pregnancy and their support for Democrats’ euphemistic calls for “reproductive rights,” which is why abortion extremism was able to sneak its way into red states like Ohio.
Trump’s history of criticizing heartbeat bills, misrepresenting the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs v. Jackson decision, and wrongfully blaming Republicans’ 2022 midterm losses on their unapologetically pro-life positions only exacerbates this disconnect.
His insistence that pro-lifers take the blame for Democrats’ deceptive abortion agenda advances is exactly why one voter sought reassurance that Trump will “protect all life, every person’s right to life without compromise” if he is elected in 2024.
His answer started weak when he highlighted the pro-life successes that happened during his first term and invoked Ronald Reagan.
The Republican has every right to brag. In just four years, he established himself as the most successful pro-life president. Much to President Joe Biden’s dismay, Trump’s decision to nominate Supreme Court justices who understood that Roe v. Wade was an unconstitutional and unjust decision led to the pro-life movement’s biggest victory to date.
His hangup on the lie that protecting the unborn loses elections, however, hurts his once-promising pro-life position.
“You have to win elections. Otherwise, you’re going to be back where you were, and you can’t let that ever happen again,” Trump emphasized.
Trump’s right that pro-lifers have to win elections to keep the Dobbs momentum going. But that won’t happen if deceived voters continue to vote for Democrats and their radical abortion agenda because it’s disguised as a push for “woman’s health and rights.”
Trump may see his hesitancy about heartbeat bills and other pro-life laws as a strategy to court the general electorate instead of hyper-fixating on winning over voters in a primary race he leads.
Appealing to all U.S. voters, however, means continuing to identify Democrats as the culprits advancing unpopular anti-life policies Americans oppose. Democrats’ abortion radicalism is a losing issue with voters, plain and simple.
Trump is off to a good start by calling out Democrats’ abortion extremism, something corporate media outlets will never do. He would do even better to remember that the fight for the unborn is an uphill battle that is best fought by aiming fire at the enemies on the other side of the aisle, not the pro-life allies that could help him win re-election.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
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