Anti-abortion advocates are aghast regarding former President Donald Trump ’s statement that his administration will be beneficial for "reproductive rights," a sign of the Republican Party drifting away from its position during the 2024 presidential campaign .
On Friday afternoon, Trump posted on his platform, Truth Social, that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” a shift in language from his earlier positions on the campaign trail.
Anti-abortion activists have long criticized the term "reproductive rights" as being a euphemism for abortion.
Lila Rose , the head of the anti-abortion group Live Action, said on X, “There is no ‘reproductive right’ to kill a child."
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, responded similarly, saying, “Please define ‘reproductive rights,’ as that cannot include the ‘right’ to kill a child.”
Abortion has been a major topic for Democrats throughout the 2024 election cycle, the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections for the procedure in the June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization .
Although the former president has taken credit for appointing the three justices crucial for the Dobbs decision, Trump has repeatedly denied any support for any nationwide abortion legislation, instead saying that abortion policy belongs in the hands of the states. But he has also criticized some state prohibitions on abortion as overly restrictive.
Under Trump’s leadership, the Republican Party has shifted in recent months away from the anti-abortion movement. In July, the vast majority of the anti-abortion language from the 2016 Republican platform was removed from the 2024 version, as was language regarding the sanctity of life.
Anti-abortion advocates, and Catholics in particular, also voiced frustration last month with Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance for stating his support for access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which is responsible for nearly two-thirds of the abortions in the United States.
Nevertheless, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the leading anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, called Trump the “most pro-life president in American history” in April.
When Vice President Kamala Harris named Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, Dannenfelser said that Trump, Vance, and the GOP writ large “support the right of the people to set limits on abortion and provide real options for mothers in need,” making a sharp contrast with the Democratic position of no gestational age limits for abortion.
SBA did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment regarding Trump’s post on Truth Social.
Other anti-abortion advocates and conservative leaders, though, highlighted that the gap between the Republican and Democratic parties on abortion appears to be shrinking.
“At this point what is even the difference between this campaign and the Democrats?” far-right political activist Nicholas Fuentes said on X.
Ryan Anderson, the president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, called the choice of the parties one "between an abortion extremist and someone who will be 'great' for 'reproductive rights.'"
"This is what we've come to," Catholic philosopher Edward Feser said on X. "And as when people insist that we have to surrender to either the German army or the Russian army, my inclination is to follow Patton’s advice and attack in both directions."
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