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Donald Trump’s work-around the abortion policy bullseye painted on his back, won’t be his undoing.

It will be what bleeds key support from his Right to Life voter base.

In a video on X, pro-life juggernaut Lila Rose posted an appeal to the Trump 2024 camp, encouraging them to go back to Trump 2016.

“People want a fighter. People want someone who is not going to bow to the establishment, bow to the pollsters, consultants, and fake media.”

“That’s not what Trump is delivering right now,” she said.

“In fact, he’s trying to sound like a Democrat on abortion.

“The response from the pro-life community is crucial,” Rose added.

“I’m encouraging Trump to get out there and fight for life.

“And I want to encourage the pro-life community to come out and say, President Trump, stand for life!”

My personal message to the Trump campaign on abortion: pic.twitter.com/TrjQI2BQqE

— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) August 28, 2024

Backlash

Influencer Samuel Sey and lawyer Jenna Ellis added their voices to the dissent.

As did former Daily Wire writer Ben Zeisloft, The Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon, and former MAGA rapper CCG Bryson.

Each has rightfully taken issue with Trump’s abandonment of his original pro-life platform.

If we’re not willing to criticize Trump’s pro-abortion stance, then we have no basis to criticise Kamala Harris’ more radical stance.

— Samuel Sey (@SlowToWrite) August 26, 2024

Trump’s 2024 Right-to-Life reversal is unliked, even though it might appear reasonable from his point of view.

Going abortion-lite hits all the right political notes for the Trump campaign’s MAGA vs. Marxism unity ticket.

If the former President has to rely on “rare, safe, and legal” to rally a winning chance against Commie-la Harris and Woke Walz, Trump probably views this clear compromise as the lesser of two evils.

Just as influential are Trump’s latest endorsees.

New high-profile MAGA supporters Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard both support a restrained “right” to turn the womb into a tomb.

Regardless of the reasons, Trump appearing to endorse abortion in order to secure an endorsement harms his credibility.

Seventy-one percent of conservative Republicans think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Does Trump need their vote?

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) August 24, 2024

For instance, Trump’s right-to-life reversal waters down the important role he played in the Supreme Court ending Roe v. Wade.

Reservations

On balance, Trump has at least expressed that his views on abortion align with the great Ronald Reagan’s.

As Reagan’s knowledge about abortion evolved, he came to understand that life began at conception.

Although he was against abortion, Reagan felt that political pressure necessitated navigating between no, and yes.

Reagan’s daughter affirmed this, stating in The NY Times that he wrestled with the practice.

This ‘soul struggle’ eventually led Reagan to conclude with – note: not be at peace with – a policy that viewed rare abortions as “self-defence”.

Such as “rape, incest, or an instance where the mother’s life was threatened by pregnancy or childbirth.”

Writing about abortion in 1975, Reagan said,

“I now very strongly hold to the belief that an abortion is the taking of a human life.”

This no to abortion, was met with a tentative yes-in-rare-cases.

He reasoned that “self-defence was recognised by our Judeo-Christian religion” as just.

Therefore, “abortion is justified [but only] in this context.

“I know there will be disagreement with this view,” he added, “but I can find no evidence whatsoever, that a foetus (offspring) is not a living human being with human rights.” (Reagan, in His Own Hand, pp. 383-385).

Like Trump, Reagan’s dialectic approach to abortion was a compromise, only made palatable by a lament about society denying their children the right to life.

Attached to this was the trend that reduces conceiving a child to that of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

To his credit, in May 1979, Reagan smacked down sex education – and by default, abortion.

Sex education removed from biblical understanding of the context for sex, and morality, is setting youth up to fail, he argued.

Governments are teaching kids that “sex had no more significance than eating a sandwich.

“Before we do more of what we are doing,” he said, “why don’t we find out if what we are doing is part of the problem?” (ibid., pp. 350-351)

Reagan’s question emphasises the profound resonance within Lila Rose’s appeal to Trump.

The image of the bloodied former president, rising with fist in the air, saying, “Fight, fight, fight,” echoes his duty to fight for life.

An assassin’s attempt to abort Trump’s life is not all that far removed from the abortionist’s knife killing by way of the NSDAP’s “life unworthy of life”.

Killing in the name of “reproductive rights” isn’t healthcare.

The sentiment of “fight, fight, fight” must include the right to life and the abolition of abortion.

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Republished with thanks to Caldron Pool.