Donald Trump once supported abortion, now claims to be pro-life.
A record number of major candidates entered the race to seek the Republican presidential nomination, many of whom hold pro-life views. The winner, who will face a gauntlet of caucus and primary elections from February through June and be named the party’s standard-bearer at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 18–21.
On Feb. 1, Iowa will hold a caucus to divvy up delegates for the convention, followed by a New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, a South Carolina primary on Feb. 20, and a Nevada caucus on Feb. 23. On March 1 – Super Tuesday – 14 states including Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee, will hold primaries. By then the field of 14 candidates will be significantly reduced.
There were 17 candidates running but three pro-life candidates dropped out in the fall: former Texas governor Rick Perry, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
As of December 21, when The Interim went to press, the remaining candidates included former Florida governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, former Arkansas governor and Fox news celebrity Mike Huckabee, Ohio Governor John Kasich, former New York governor George Pataki, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, businessman Donald Trump, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
Thus far, moral issues have largely been ignored as candidates focus on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, and national security. The National Right to Life Committee said in a recent National Right to Life News that a pro-life president and larger pro-life majority in the Senate is necessary because the “entrenched pro-abortion minority” in the Senate has blocked life-protecting legislation and President Barack Obama has pushed a pro-abortion agenda.
The Democrats appear likely to nominate pro-abortion former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but all the second-tier contenders are also pro-abortion.
Several Republican candidates are polling in the low single digits and are unlikely to breakthrough the crowded field: Pataki and Gilmore who are pro-abortion and Graham, Huckabee, and Santorum, who are all solidly pro-life.
According to the National Right to Life Committee scorecard, senators Cruz, Paul, and Rubio are all pro-life, without exceptions. Cruz and Rubio have also vocally opposed the birth control provisions of Obama’s health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Paul has spoken to the March for Life in Washington.
Kasich, a former Congressman, opposed abortion except in cases of rape and incest. As a leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives in the 1990s, he voted for the ban on partial-birth abortion and a law barring transporting minors across state lines to obtain an abortion. As Ohio Governor, he sought to defund abortion, but said in September that it was not worth risking a federal government shutdown over the issue of defunding Planned Parenthood. Bush has a similar record, although as governor he also funded adoption counseling, signed laws permitting “Choose Life” license plates and requiring parental consent for abortions, and strengthened abortion facility regulations.
Christie donated to Planned Parenthood in 1994 but as a county politician he opposed public funding of the organization. He said that he changed his views on abortion after hearing his daughter’s heartbeat during a prenatal visit in 1995, and now calls himself pro-life. He has called for Republican Congress to put a bill defunding abortion on the desk of the President. As Governor he signed laws defunding Planned Parenthood six years running and support laws restricting abortions, but says he still support abortion in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.
The three political outsiders do not have records to run on.
Carson, a respected medical doctor and Christian speaker, has sent mixed signals on abortion. He says he finds abortion for convenience “repugnant” and said he is “personally opposed to abortion” but indicated support for chemical abortions in cases of rape and incest. He has stated clearly he wants to ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation and said he has persuaded women to cancel abortions.
Fiorina has been the most vocal on abortion in the primaries, repeatedly calling on Hillary Clinton to repudiate Planned Parenthood after the Center for Medical Progress released videos exposing the organization harvesting and selling baby parts for profit. She also said that the Republican Congress should be willing to shut down the government in a fight over defunding Planned Parenthood, saying that if Democrats want to defend the $500 million the abortion giant receives, let them. She says she is pro-life except in cases of rape and incest, and supports embryonic stem cell research as long as embryos are not created for the sole purpose of harvesting stem cells from them. She wants Roe v. Wade overturned and is committed to naming Supreme Court justices that are pro-life and oppose judicial activism.
Pinning down Donald Trump is more difficult. In his 2000 bestseller The America We Deserve he said he supported “a woman’s right to choose” but supported a partial-birth abortion ban. In 2012, when he flirted with running for the Republican presidential nomination, he said was pro-life after changing his mind based on personal stories with parents with whom he had talked. Asked on Meet the Press last summer if he ever contributed to Planned Parenthood he responded, “I don’t know – but it’s possible.” He said he supported defunding Planned Parenthood after the Center for Medical Progress tapes were released, but initially suggested funding for the abortion organization could continue if government funds were not used to pay for abortions.
National pro-life organizations have not publicly endorsed candidates yet and sources say that the leadership in many groups are not united behind any single candidate. Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition in Canada, said he sees both sides of waiting-and-seeing: there are a number of pro-life candidates that deserve support but the movement diminishes its strength by not getting behind one candidate early. Hughes told The Interim that “with several high-profile, solid pro-lifers, there is no need to compromise for candidates who are far from perfect.” He said he hopes the pro-life movement coalesces around one pro-life candidate before it is too late to mount a credible campaign to win the nomination.
Polls suggest that the race is between three candidates at this time, Trump, Cruz, and Rubio, the latter two have only recently begun making traction against the billionaire who has led most polls since last August.
