Trump Tells Group That Wants Total Ban on Abortion, ‘I’ll Be with You, Side by Side’

Former President Donald Trump gave a prerecorded address at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, which calls abortion “the greatest atrocity facing our generation” and a “child sacrifice.”

The group advocates a total ban on the procedure, with no exceptions.

In his address played at the institute’s Life & Liberty Forum on Monday, Trump pledged to stand with the organization.

“These are difficult times for our nation, and your work is so important,” he said. “We can’t afford to have anyone sit on the sidelines. Now is the time for us all to pull together and to stand up for our values and for our freedoms. And you just can’t vote Democrat. They’re against religion. They’re against your religion in particular. You cannot vote for Democrats.”

The former president called the U.S. “a seriously declining nation.”

“I know what’s happening,” he went on. “I know where you’re coming from and where you’re going. And I’ll be with you, side by side.”

Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, all of whom voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. The former president has boasted of this accomplishment, while publicly opposing a federal abortion ban. His opposition has disappointed anti-abortion advocates, who continue to lobby him to support one.

Since the overturning of Roe , a slew of states have enacted a variety of abortion restrictions. Some Republicans have warned the party against adopting an extreme position on the issue and have cited it as a key reason Republicans failed to retake the Senate and only regained the House by a narrow margin in the 2022 midterms.