When Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign’s abortion policy April 8, advocates on both sides of the issue didn’t believe him.
Of course, stretching the truth is nothing new for the presumptive once-again Republican nominee.
Trump got elected president in 2016 in large measure due to the support of evangelical Christians, who make up the largest anti-abortion voting bloc in the nation, alongside Roman Catholics. And with maneuvering from Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, Trump got to nominate three Supreme Court justices, setting the stage for the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Trump now claims credit for that Supreme Court decision. In his April 8 video announcement, he said he is “proudly the person responsible for the ending” of Roe.
He did not make the kind of full-throated anti-abortion campaign pledge conservative evangelicals have made their life’s mission to enact.
But he did not make the kind of full-throated anti-abortion campaign pledge conservative evangelicals have made their life’s mission to enact. Flush with their Supreme Court victory, conservative evangelical leaders — if not their congregants — have set their sights on outlawing all forms of abortion everywhere, including early medication abortions and IVF therapies. Some are calling themselves abortion abolitionists.
But Trump didn’t go that far in his campaign announcement, instead saying: “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.”
That mirrors an earlier stated goal of the anti-abortion movement but does not reflect the current consensus. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has set a policy agenda to “advocate for the complete end of abortion” in America.
Trump also expressed support for three exceptions to abortion bans — in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk — again running counter to the abortion abolitionist movement. Further, he said he supports a patchwork approach that runs counter to the larger anti-abortion agenda: “Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, it’s all about (the) will of the people.”
Anti-abortion advocates have shown they are not concerned about the “will of the people.” National polling repeatedly shows most Americans favor some access to abortion and reject Republican Party talking points about a national ban on all forms of abortion.
An ‘abortion problem’
Eric Levitz, writing for Vox, named the political calculus Trump appears to be employing. Trump, he wrote, “has an abortion problem.”
Eric Levitz
He cited national polling showing American voters trust President Joe Biden more than Trump to handle abortion policy.
“Trump understands that all this is a major political liability,” Levitz explained. “And on Monday, he tried to address it, releasing a video in which he details his vague — yet ostensibly moderate — new stance on abortion policy.”
That should not be understood as the reality of a second Trump administration, he warned. “If voters want to know what a second Trump administration would actually mean for abortion rights, however, they’d be better off looking to Trump’s past actions and current alliances, rather than his cheap words.”
The entire mechanism of the conservative movement preparing for the next Republican White House — epitomized in Project 2025 — anticipates clamping down hard on abortion access.
And some states are well ahead of Trump’s seemingly moderate position.
“When Texas forces a woman pregnant with a fatally ill fetus to carry it to term — even at the risk of suffering uterine rupture and infertility — that is a consequence of the Trump presidency,” Levitz wrote. When a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio must travel across state lines to have an abortion, that is a testament to Trump’s legacy. When Alabama disrupts fertility services by declaring that embryos have the same rights as people, those frozen bunches of cells have Trump to thank.”
Levitz concluded: “Taken as a whole, Trump’s statement constitutes a sound political gambit. Given the constraints imposed by his coalition and record … (it) is about the most expedient stance that Trump could take. It gestures at the median voter’s discomfort with late-term abortions without committing Trump to either a national ban or any specific state-level week limit.”
Conservative reaction
The Associated Press reported on reactions from the conservative anti-abortion world.
“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Jenna Ellis with Donald Trump (Photo courtesy of CNN)
“President Trump’s retreat on the right to life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans,” said former Vice President Mike Pence.
Evangelical Christian lawyer Jenna Ellis, who has apologized and faced legal censure for advancing Trump’s false claims of election fraud, also tore into him on X: “So weak. Trump punts on the issue of pro-life and pledges to support whatever states decide, including blue states that will allow abortion until the moment of birth. ‘Follow your heart’ is a Hallmark card, not strong conservative principled policy.”
Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, said Trump took the “worst possible political position” on abortion and should have opted for a 15- or 16-week federal ban.
Nevertheless, Trump’s policy statement did not appear to cause any of anti-abortion voters to consider abandoning him at the polls.
Left doesn’t buy it either
Those who advocate for some level of access to abortion rights also weren’t buying Trump’s statement.
Ezra Levin
Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, called Trump’s statement “bullshit.”
“Trump’s garbled and confused message reaffirms what we already know: Abortion is the GOP’s kryptonite,” he said. “Trump bragged about ending Roe, embraced the state-level abortion bans across the country, and refused to oppose a national abortion ban that Republicans in Congress are supporting. Knowing how bad the polling is for him and his side, Trump attempted to confuse the issue, but we know and voters know what’s in store for the country should Trump and MAGA win — a national abortion ban stretching from California to New York, passed by Republicans in the House and Senate and signed into law by Trump.”
He called Trump’s latest message “a political messaging attempt at obfuscation and plausible deniability on the campaign trail. In [a] word, it was bullshit. And we know this because the night before this statement, Trump himself told the world he had to issue a statement in order to win the election. When Trump tells us he’s full of shit, we should believe him.”
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