Who really knows what Donald Trump’s views on abortion are?
He’s been working hard to persuade the forced-birther brigades that he’s now on their side, despite his past statements. On Friday, as commented on here, he appointed a one-time critic of his, Marjorie Dannenfelser, to be national chairwoman of his campaign’s Pro-life Coalition. Dannenfelser is president of one of the ultras in the war over abortion, the Susan B. Anthony List. Not just opposed to all abortions, but also contraception, which she idiotically claims leads to more abortion.
As can be seen in a timeline from Rewire, although he didn’t personally show up at the event, Trump co-sponsored a $500-a-ticket fundraiser 27 years ago for the National Abortion Rights Action League, now NARAL. Seventeen years ago, he told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that he was very “pro-choice.” But he also told Foxaganda the same year that he opposed what the propagandists called “partial-birth abortion,” now prohibited by federal law.
In 2010, to ABC’s George Stephanopolous, Trump hinted, in his typical sneaky fashion, that he would soon surprise people when he made his decision about abortion public. And in 2011, pondering a presidential run the next year, he made a public shift, telling several newscasters that he was “pro-life,” but wanted there to be exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest and if the woman’s life was endangered. In 2015, he told CNN’s Dana Bash that he thought the Republican Party platform, which backs passage of the extremist human life amendment, should include those exceptions.
Early last August he said the federal government should defund Planned Parenthood. Just over a week later, he backed up a bit and said he wanted to consider the other things besides abortion that the organization does. In November, he switched again and said he favored totally defunding it. In December, at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, he wouldn’t give a clear answer about whether he thinks Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
It’s not hard to see why forced-birthers have their suspicions. Just as on other issues, on the matter of reproductive rights, Donald Trump displays a kaleidoscope of views. Consequently, a number of prominent leaders of the movement, including Dannenfelser, signed a scathing letter in January 2016 arguing an anybody-but-Trump position.
Last week, however, after having named forced-birther John Mashburn as his policy director in May, Trump made his strongest anti-abortion statement yet in a letter announcing Dannenfelser’s appointment. In it, Trump vowed to nominate “pro-life justices” to the U.S. Supreme Court; sign the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to end all late-term abortions; defund Planned Parenthood entirely; and make “the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions.”
Notice that nowhere in those pledges is there anything about the exceptions he backed just a year ago.
Emily Crockett at Vox writes:
Trump already sent a pretty strong signal on his intentions for reproductive health when he nominated Pence as his running mate. Pence is one of America’s most dedicated anti-abortion governors, and even signed a bizarre law this year that would have mandated funerals for fetuses. (That law was later struck down as unconstitutional.)
On top of that, Trump was recently endorsed by radical anti-abortion activist Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. Newman is infamous for suggesting that killing abortion providers is justifiable, and was deported from Australia last year over concerns that he might incite anti-abortion violence.
As reproductive rights advocates have said, accepting the extremist Newman’s endorsement is no better than accepting David Duke’s.
As we have learned on countless other issues, all those contradictory words uttered by Trump don’t amount to a splat of manure when it comes to policy. Even though his “pro-life” stance seems to have been adopted just for votes, not out of any principle, it’s better to look at who he surrounds himself with and accepts support from than merely listening to what comes out of his mouth. Which, as we continue to see, can change at a moment’s notice.
Maybe the forced-birther brigades are now comfortable with him. The rest of us have more reasons than ever to fear what he would do in this matter (and so many others) were he to get to sit behind the big desk in the Oval Office.