In 2016 I couldn't vote for Donald Trump. I wrote about it. When people asked me about Trump vs. Clinton I responded, "You can't trust either one of them." When Trump claimed a pro-life platform, I didn't believe he'd follow through. I made a bet with my friend, Troy Newman (no relation), president of Operation Rescue and an ardent Trump supporter. If three standards were met, I would publicly recant my position. Trump would have to: reinstate the Mexico City Policy, place judges willing to overturn Roe v. Wade on the Supreme Court, and defund Planned Parenthood.
I didn't get everything I wanted.
The Mexico City Policy was a softball. Any Republican president would reinstate the policy that keeps the U.S. from exporting abortion abroad. Trump did so right away.
The appointment of pro-life judges continues to be uncertain, but I believe that if given an opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, the new appointees would do so, particularly if they could secure a 6-3 vote. And if the vote looked like 5-4 without his vote, even Chief Justice Roberts would vote with the majority and make it 6-3.
Defunding Planned Parenthood didn't happen, but not because of Trump. It failed because two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, voted "no" when the measure came up.
Forced now to reconsider, my conclusion is that Trump has been the most pro-life president in my lifetime – including Ronald Reagan, who said many of the right things but accomplished relatively little. In virtually every area – both in word and deed – Trump has delivered for his pro-life constituents and, by extension, to innumerable innocent human beings in the womb who otherwise would have died. Trump's policy position has been to oppose legislation that attempts to advance abortion. Vice-President Mike Pence recently visited a pregnancy help clinic and, in 2019, addressed the March for Life. In 2020, Trump became the first president in U.S. history to address the March for Life – not via video, but in person. Trump's administration stood against the United Nation's move to promote abortion.
Though Trump did not completely defund Planned Parenthood, he allowed states to remove $60 million in Title X funding and Planned Parenthood's access to Medicaid money. While this figure represents only about 10% of the annual federal funding for the world's most notorious member of the abortion industry, given the chance, I believe Trump would entirely defund Planned Parenthood. He simply needs a Republican House and enough brave Republican senators to forward the bill to his desk.
With Democrat Party presidential nominee Joe Biden's pick of Senator Kamala Harris on August 11, the Democrats have – once again – demonstrated the opposite commitment. The Democrat Party has moved far from the position articulated (though never actually promoted) by Bill Clinton, that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." The Biden-Harris ticket will promote the new slogan of the abortion-choice movement: "Abortion on demand and without apology." They are completely in thrall to NARAL Pro-Choice America, The National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood.
Under a Biden presidency, the United States would have the lamentable distinction as the world's biggest exporter of abortion. Even meager restrictions on abortion, including prohibitions on federal funding, would be swept away.
Like many Americans, Donald Trump's public persona often grates on me. I also understand that Trump supports rape and incest exceptions on abortion legislation. I pray his position is malleable. People close to him should explain the schizophrenia of believing that the circumstances of one's conception should be the determining factor regarding whether a human being has a right to life.
In 2016 I had no reason to believe that Trump would make good on his pro-life promises. But today I can evaluate a four-year track record. And compared with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' known policy positions, the choice is clear.
Some might argue that this makes me a "single-issue" voter. Please. Everyone is a single-issue voter when the policy at stake is sufficiently significant. It's wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being. The only conclusion we can reach is that abortion is wrong. Dead wrong.
The primary responsibility of government is to protect the most innocent and vulnerable from direct attack. Joe Biden rejects that obligation regarding human beings in the womb. President Trump's administration has demonstrated fidelity to it. He deserves support. He'll have mine in November.
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