Donald Trump may be confused about what school nurses do, but he’s back on script opposing abortion.
The Republican presidential nominee made waves within his own party last week when he appeared to support some level of abortion access and initially said he would vote for a ballot initiative in Florida — his new home state — that would expand access to abortion.
Also, speaking to a Moms for Liberty summit last week, Trump weighed in on the fight against “woke” public schools and gender-affirming care for transgender students.
“The transgender thing is an incredible thing,” he said. “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And you know many of these childs 15 years later say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’”
“Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation.”
Video of Trump’s outlandish statement about children getting gender-change surgery at school splashed all over social media but was not widely reported in mainstream media. But that gaffe didn’t seem to bother his political base, which spreads similar scary stories about transgender identity.
What did bother his base was Trump’s comment earlier last week when he said he would be voting in favor of the Florida ballot initiative that would expand access to abortion because he believes a ban on abortions after six-weeks of pregnancy is too short and women who are pregnant need “more time” to make a decision.
That position defies the strident antiabortion stance of his party, particularly his evangelical Christian base.
Also last week, Trump put out a social media message saying he would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”
Critics accused Trump of changing his tune on abortion to court female voters, who appear to be turning strongly toward Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. However, doing so would alienate his traditional conservative base, which caused one leader to declare, “It is not the job of the pro-life movement to vote for President Trump.”
Over the weekend, Trump changed his tune and told a Fox News reporter: “I’ll be voting no” on Florida’s abortion access ballot measure.
However, Trump reiterated that he still disagrees with Florida’s abortion ban at six weeks and he supports in vitro fertilization.
While many conservatives support IVF as a way to help infertile couples conceive and bear children, a growing number of abortion abolitionists are denouncing IVF because the process produces extra fertilized eggs that often are destroyed. There is a movement to “adopt” these embryos or to force women to receive in their bodies all the eggs that are fertilized.
This became a topic of hot debate at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June, with SBC seminary president Al Mohler co-authoring a resolution against IVF.
Last week, Trump declared his administration — if he’s elected — would require insurers to cover IVF treatments. Critics said that was an unusual claim from someone who otherwise opposes health care mandates as the folly of liberals and big government.
“We’re doing this because we just think it’s great,” he said. “And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them.”
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