After a strong Pro-Life Presidency, candidate Trump does some flip-flopping on abortion

 

Trump Says Abortion Restrictions Should Be Left to the States

After months of mixed signals, Donald Trump said that whatever states decide “must be the law of the land,” adding that he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

By Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Michael Gold

• April 8, 2024

Former President Donald J. Trump said in a video statement on Monday that abortion rights should be left up to the states, remarks that came after months of mixed signals on an issue that he and his advisers have worried could cost him dearly in the election.

Mr. Trump said his view was that the states should decide through legislation, and that “whatever they decide must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” But he added that he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” Mr. Trump said in the video, which he posted on his Truth Social website.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about will of the people,” he added. “That’s where we are right now and that’s what we want — the will of the people.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came as Democrats, who saw their voting base energized against Republicans in 2022 after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, have attacked the former president at every turn on the issue of abortion.

Mr. Trump, who has been trying to balance his desire to please the conservative base with his attempts to avoid alienating swing voters, faced blowback after The New York Times reported in February that he had said privately that he liked the idea of a 16-week national ban. He then talked about such a ban publicly, and the backlash continued. So Mr. Trump’s advisers tried to find a way for him to avoid a more specific position at a time when Republicans across the country are struggling with how to address abortion.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, anti-abortion groups have called for a national ban, which would face steep odds in the House and Senate. Mr. Trump did not refer to a national ban in his remarks, but his comments about leaving the matter to the states suggested that he was trying to avoid being pulled deeper into the issue.

But politically, Mr. Trump’s announcement that abortion should be left to the states will allow Democrats to tag him with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, including a six-week ban in Florida that he has said was a “terrible mistake.”

In a statement, President Biden accused Mr. Trump, who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who were pivotal in overturning Roe, of fostering “cruelty” and “chaos” surrounding abortion in the wake of the decision. He added that Mr. Trump’s position was effectively an endorsement of states that had passed tougher abortion restrictions, including six-week bans.

He also contended that Mr. Trump, despite his statement, would be likely to back a federal abortion ban if he won in November. “If Donald Trump is elected and the MAGA Republicans in Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law,” Mr. Biden said.

By contrast, Mr. Trump’s remarks drew blistering criticism from his former vice president, Mike Pence, a staunch conservative whose presence on the 2016 presidential ticket was vital in giving Mr. Trump, a billionaire former abortion rights supporter, credibility with evangelicals.

“President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020,” Mr. Pence wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding, “However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country.”

And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who unlike Mr. Pence remains a Trump ally, also broke with the former president.

“I respectfully disagree with President Trump’s statement that abortion is a states’ rights issue,” he said in a statement, adding, “I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at 15 weeks.”

Mr. Trump spent hours on Monday afternoon lashing out at Mr. Graham and other Republican allies who had offered relatively tame criticism of his move.

“Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency,” he wrote on social media.

In the video, Mr. Trump said he was “proudly the person responsible” for overturning Roe and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years. Mr. Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe should be ended.

He then falsely claimed that Democrats wanted babies “executed after birth.”

For months, Mr. Trump has debated with advisers what he should say about abortion to stop Democrats from using the issue against him in November, as they did so successfully to outperform expectations against Republicans in the 2022 midterms.

Some anti-abortion activists had pushed Mr. Trump to support a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, to set a minimum national standard and to block later-term abortions in Democratic-controlled states.

As recently as February, Mr. Trump had privately told advisers he liked the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of his deliberations. He made those comments as he was trying to fend off his last significant primary rival, Nikki Haley, in her home state, South Carolina.

He told his aides he wanted to wait until the Republican presidential primary contest was over to publicly discuss his views, because he didn’t want to alienate social conservatives before he wrapped up the nomination, the two people said.

Mr. Trump, who has approached abortion transactionally — and has spoken about it clumsily — since beginning his political career in 2015, told aides he liked the idea of a 16-week federal ban on abortion because it was a round number.

“Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. “It’s even. It’s four months.”

The Trump campaign called the reporting “fake news” at the time, but Mr. Trump then publicly made clear he was considering supporting a 15-week ban, and his advisers issued statements saying he would come up with a national consensus.

Democrats immediately seized on the report of Mr. Trump’s plans, saying that Mr. Trump favored a national abortion ban. The blowback played a role in his decision to back away from announcing a national limit, according to people who spoke with Mr. Trump afterward. Some campaign advisers tried to distance Mr. Trump from the Times report about what he had been saying privately.

Mr. Trump’s statement on Monday disappointed some conservatives who were hoping for more restrictive efforts nationally.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”

She added, “Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats.”

Others were more supportive of Mr. Trump, however. Carol Tobias, the president of the group National Right to Life, said that thanks to him, “the American people and their elected representatives on the state and federal levels now have greater authority to determine abortion policy and pass meaningful protections for unborn children and their mothers.”

Late into adulthood, Mr. Trump described himself as “very pro-choice” before announcing that he was “pro-life” as he considered running for the Republican nomination in 2011. In the 2016 election, he secured evangelical support by promising to choose his Supreme Court justices from a list of conservative judges who would be expected to favor overturning Roe.

But after the Supreme Court did what Mr. Trump engineered it to do, in June 2022, he told advisers the abortion issue could hurt Republicans badly in that year’s midterm elections. By the time the results were coming in — underwhelming for Republicans — Mr. Trump was privately discussing the issue as if he were a television pundit, claiming credit for being right about how abortion would cost Republicans politically.

Mr. Trump was scathing in his private assessments of Republicans who he thought were overly “harsh” in their positions on abortion, according to advisers. He often criticized two failed G.O.P. candidates for governor — Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan — for being too hard-line on abortion and for not supporting sufficient exceptions.

Still, even as Mr. Trump has avoided taking a clear public position on abortion, he often proudly highlights his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who ultimately allowed Roe to be overturned.

And at a Christian media convention in February, even as he avoided uttering the word abortion, Mr. Trump told attendees that he “took historic action to protect the unborn.” He also demonized Democrats on the issue, making the exaggerated claim that liberals support policies that would “kill the unborn in the sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth months, even after birth” and falsely claiming that the Biden administration had “hunted down” anti-abortion activists.

Anti-abortion activists are hopeful that Mr. Trump will be as willing to allow them to shape policy in a second administration as he often did when he became president in 2017.

“You must follow your heart on this issue,” Mr. Trump said in his video. “But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.”

How the Republican debate treated the topics of abortion, immigration and each other

 

GOP Presidential Candidates Debate Abortion, Immigration 

At Reagan Library

(OSV News) — Seven Republican candidates joined the Republican National Committee’s second debate of their party’s presidential primary process in California, sparring over topics including immigration, China policy, abortion and the economy.

The party’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, did not attend the debate hosted by Fox News, after also declining to participate in the first debate. Trump instead spent the day in the battleground state of Michigan, calling on autoworkers to support his vision of “economic nationalism.”

Several of the GOP candidates criticized Trump’s absence from the debate stage, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis describing him as “missing in action” and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie calling him “Donald Duck.”

The debate, which took place at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library in Simi Valley, California, was moderated by Fox News hosts Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, as well as Univision’s Ilia Calderón.

However, the debate was chaotic, with candidates frequently talking over each other and the moderators at times slow to intervene. In one such moment, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s shifting stance on the social media app TikTok, telling him, “every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber.”

Other participants in the debate were former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Asked about abortion ballot initiative losses for Republicans in 2022, and their electability on that issue in swing states, DeSantis — who signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban in April — said they can win by “leading with purpose and conviction.”

DeSantis also criticized Trump for suggesting that abortion was to blame for Republicans underperforming in the 2022 midterm elections and for calling some state-level abortion restrictions “terrible.”

“I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats; I think there’s other reasons for that,” DeSantis said. “The former president, he’s missing in action tonight. He’s had a lot to say about that. He should be here explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing.”

Christie argued that he got elected as a pro-life governor in a blue state.

“And in fact, I was governor of the only blue state that’s represented up here,” Christie said of the debate stage. “This is where the fight is really tough for Republicans. And those are the states that we’re gonna have to try to win if we’re going to win the White House back.”

Christie said that he vetoed Planned Parenthood funding as governor, adding “the Democrats just kept sending it to me — and I kept saying no, because I believe in life.”

“But I also believe in states rights,” Christie said. “And I think we fought hard against Roe v. Wade for decades to say that states should make these decisions. So we’re going to have those fights in the states.”

He added, “What we need is a leader who could talk to people and make them understand that if you’re pro-life, you have to be pro-life for the entire life, not just the nine months in the womb.”

“The drug-addicted 16-year-old in the county lockup — her life is precious too,” Christie said, referencing an earlier debate topic of drug addiction. “And we need to be providing treatment to cure this as a disease; that is if you’re pro-life, you got to be pro-life for the entire life.”

The candidates drew hardline immigration stances, and criticized how President Joe Biden has handled border security.

DeSantis reiterated his previous pledge that “I’m going to use the U.S. military to go after the Mexican drug cartels.”

“They are killing our people,” he said.

Ramaswamy called for “ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country.”

Pence was asked directly what he would do for “Dreamers,” migrants brought to the U.S. as children, since the Trump administration ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but he pivoted immediately to discussing U.S. border security and China policy.

Those comments overall marked a stark departure from previous Republican orthodoxy on immigration, particularly from the Reagan administration, at whose library the event was held.

During his presidency, Reagan signed into law the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, a sweeping immigration reform bill that implemented tighter security at the U.S.-Mexico border, but also granted amnesty to some migrants who entered the country illegally. Both Reagan and President George H.W. Bush took executive actions to protect from deportation some migrant children and spouses of people covered by the amnesty.

Despite the contentious debate, candidates rejected a prompt from moderators to identify a rival they think should be “voted off the island” by writing their name on a whiteboard. DeSantis said he would not do that, as it was “disrespectful” to the other candidates on stage, who concurred.

When Varney suggested he saw Christie appearing to write a name, Christie said the name he had in mind wasn’t on the stage.

“Every person on this stage has shown respect for Republican voters to come here to express their views honestly, candidly, and directly and to take your questions,” Christie said, adding Trump “has not only divided our party. He’s divided families all over this country.”

“He’s divided friends all over this country,” Christie said. “I’ve spoken to people — and I know everyone else has — who have sat at Thanksgiving dinner or at a birthday party and can’t have a conversation anymore if they disagree with Donald Trump. He needs to be pulled off the island to get out of this process.”

The third Republican presidential debate is scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami.

Mike Pence speaks to Catholics in Napa California

 

Mike Pence at Catholic conference: ‘God is not done with America yet’

By Shannon Mullen

Napa, California, Jul 28, 2023 / 13:10 pm

Speaking to hundreds of influential Catholic leaders gathered this week in California wine country, former vice president and current GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence on Thursday challenged “deeply committed” lay Catholics to “boldly live out their faith in the public square,” adding: “God is not done with America yet.”

“It’s never been more important for the sake of our kids and our family, our future, for you to leave here with a burden on your hearts to speak out,” Pence told participants of the Napa Institute’s annual summer conference, held at the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa.

“The priests and the bishops and monsignors who are here will lead the way [in] churches across this country. But I must tell you, they’d be the first to tell you that we need the American people to step up, because I really do believe with all of my heart that the foundation of America is freedom. But the foundation of freedom is faith,” he said.

“Now more than ever, we need people of faith and people in the Catholic community all across this country to step up and give voice to your values.”

Pence’s 35-minute address on the role of faith in public life was one of the headline events at the nonprofit Napa Institute’s 13th annual summer conference, which brings together “Catholic leaders, clergy, and changemakers” for a week of speeches, spiritual enrichment, wine tastings, and other activities.

“Napa equips and empowers leaders of faith to live out authentic Catholicism in a world that views us as contrarian,” according to its website. “We ensure lay apostolates not only know what the Church teaches, but know how to meaningfully defend why the Church teaches what she does.”

The theme of this year’s conference, which cost $2,800 a ticket for non-clergy, is “What We Need Now: Renewing God’s Presence in Our Lives, in Our Church, and in Our Culture.” More than 800 people registered this year.

Leaving the Catholic Church

In this early but critical stage of the 2024 presidential campaign, Pence currently trails his former boss Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by a wide margin, drawing a national polling average of just 5.2%, according to RealClearPolitics.

Deeply pro-life, pro-business, and pro-military, he brings solid conservative credentials to the field as well as 20 years of experience in public life, first as an Indiana congressman and governor and most recently as vice president.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished during the four years of the Trump-Pence administration,” Pence said Thursday. “We achieved the lowest unemployment, the highest household income, the most energy production, the most pro-American trade deals, the most secure border, and we made the strongest military in the history of the world stronger than ever before.”

Pence also touted his role in what he called “the most pro-life administration in American history,” highlighted by the appointment of three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who joined last year’s historic abortion decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

In his speech, Pence drew applause for his advocacy of a national 15-week abortion ban and a proposal to ban gender-transition procedures on minors.

But his decision as a younger man to leave the Catholic Church to embrace evangelical Protestantism remains a sore point for some in the standing-room-only ballroom Thursday afternoon.

“I cherish my Catholic upbringing. I truly do,” he said, pointing to his parents’ devotion to their faith, the years he and his three brothers served as altar boys at their parish, St. Columba’s, and the eight years he spent in parochial school, joking that “I’ve got the scars on my knuckles to prove it.”

Yet in his teenage years, he said, he became “an agnostic at best,” adopting the view that religion was for those who “needed a crutch in their lives.”

His outlook changed dramatically one “rainy night” at a Christian music festival at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky — the same college that garnered widespread media attention earlier this year for a multi-day prayer service linked to numerous conversions.

“It was like I heard the words for the first time, ‘God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever might believe in him might not perish, but have everlasting life,’” he said, citing John 3:16. “And it was on that night, not out of a sense of just intellectual agreement, but because my heart was literally broken for what had been done for me on the cross, that I made a decision to put my faith in Christ. And that faith in my youth became my own.”

Pence and his wife, Karen, who were married in a Catholic church, didn’t officially join an evangelical church until sometime later. The couple has three grown children: one daughter is a lawyer, another is a published author, and their son is a Marine Corps fighter pilot who will head to “Top Gun” training in the fall.

Pence also shared his experience of meeting Pope Francis while he was vice president. The pope presented him with a rosary, explaining that it was “for your mother.”

“My mom prayed that rosary every single day. What a blessing,” Pence said.

A call to speak out

Returning to his theme, Pence urged his audience not to be discouraged by the way they see the culture around them growing increasingly secular and hostile to religious belief.

“Times like this, it’s easy to feel powerless,” he said. “But I must tell you, it’s important to remember in this time where we see a culture walking away from the timeless values of our faith, if God is for us, who can be against us?”

He said he remains convinced that the “vast majority of Americans” still cherish the sanctity of life, marriage, and traditional values.

“I believe the greatest threat we face is not the strength of those who oppose us,” he said. “It’s the inadequacy of our beliefs, the danger of our own indifference, believing the lie that we can’t make a difference or we’re just one voice.”

“Leaving here from the Napa Institute, you have an opportunity to go forth, speak out, and you’ll watch people rally to your cause,” he said.

“We cannot be afraid of the truth when it comes to the public square,” he concluded. “Let us leave here with a prayer that we will have courage to resist what is popular and embrace timeless principles and values that will speak boldly and truthfully, but with love, to our fellow Americans.”

Statement by head of USCCB on today's violence

 

President of Catholic bishops’ conference condemns violence at U.S. Capitol

JAN 6, 2021 US & WORLD

 

BY RHINA GUIDOS

Supporters of President Donald Trump climb on walls at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 6, 2021, during a protest against Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election. (CNS photo/Stephanie Keith, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, in a statement condemned the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol that interrupted the electoral vote count.

In his statement, Archbishop Gomez said, “I join people of good will in condemning the violence today at the United States Capitol. This is not who we are as Americans. I am praying for members of Congress and Capitol staff and for the police and all those working to restore order and public safety.

 The USCCB president also said, “The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of this great nation. In this troubling moment, we must recommit ourselves to the values and principles of our democracy and come together as one nation under God. I entrust all of us to the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May she guide us in the ways of peace, and obtain for us wisdom and the grace of a true patriotism and love of country.”    

Supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump had breached the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, putting the building on lockdown and interrupting the count of electoral votes to certify the 2020 election, capping the last days of a tumultuous presidency with chaos.

Much of the country, and the world, watched aghast at scenes coming out of the nation's capital after Vice President Mike Pence said he had no authority to change the results of the election, affirming President-elect Joe Biden as the next commander-in-chief.

Lawmakers, including the vice president, were rushed to safety after the angry mob broke into the building. Images on Twitter showed them breaking down doors and some asking the whereabouts of the vice president, who was said to have defied Trump by refusing to block Congress from certifying the results. With "Trump 2020" flags, they freely roamed the halls of the capitol as scared lawmakers crowded together to pray, some reported.

News reports also said explosive devices were found at the national offices for the Republican and Democratic parties and at least one person was shot.

"It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not," Pence wrote lawmakers in a letter just before a joint session of Congress to tally the Electoral College count, raising Trump's ire.

Pence ended the letter with "so help me God."

Hours earlier, Trump had publicly urged Pence via Twitter to refute congressional certification of the results, even though Biden won the popular as well as the electoral vote.

"States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval," Trump tweeted, prompting Twitter to flag the tweet as a claim about election fraud that "is disputed."

"All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!" the president continued.

After Pence refused, the president attacked him on Twitter.

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify," tweeted Trump.

Some Catholics on Twitter in Washington, such as Dawn Eden Goldstein, urged prayers for peace.

"It's now 3 p.m. in DC. Please join me in praying the Divine Mercy chaplet RIGHT NOW for peace in the US Capitol and the world. I live on Capitol Hill and the sirens are screeching," she wrote.

"A national disgrace and the inevitable result of the endless lies about the election spread by @realDonaldTrump and his supporters," tweeted Jesuit Father Jim Martin. "Here we see the fruit of these lies, these sins: anger, hatred, discord, despair and violence. 'And by their fruits you will know them' (Matthew 7:20)."

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney told a reporter for The New York Times who was seeking safety along with lawmakers: "This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection."

Many criticized those who had taken part in the chaos while also carrying "Jesus saves" flags mixed in with Trump paraphernalia.

Biden, in a news conference after the chaos began, told Trump to go on national television, fulfill his oath "and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege."

"It's not protest; it's insurrection," he said.

Those in the United States were not the only ones watching the unfolding scenes, the president-elect said in a speech directed at appealing to Trump. He said democracy was fragile and in the United States, it was "under unprecedented assault."

"Think what our children watching television are thinking. Think about the rest of the world is looking at," he said.

From England, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said there were "many lessons to be learned from the scenes in Washington."

"For the moment let us pray for the USA, the world's greatest defender of democracy until now, as it faces this huge shock. May God bless America with peace and reconciliation," he tweeted.

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Rhode Island said he would be celebrating Mass "for our troubled nation."

"In this holy season, as we continue to observe the birth of the Christ Child, may peace, harmony, unity and fraternity be restored in our country. May God bless and guide America!," he wrote.

From Dallas, Bishop Edward J. Burns, tweeted: "Let us pray that this one nation, under God, will always follow the paths of peace and justice."

Later in the afternoon, Trump released a video continuing to wrongfully and repeatedly insist he had won the election. Claiming fraud, he seemed to address supporters who had caused the chaos and told them to "go home."

"But you have to go home now, we have to have peace we have to have law and order, we have to respect our great people in law and order, we don't want anybody hurt," he said. "It's a very tough period of time ... we have to have peace, so, go home we love you. You're very special, you've seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel but go home and go home in peace."

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori released a statement later in the day saying that "our hearts are heavy as we witness the shocking and unlawful protests occurring in our nation's capital."

"We fervently pray for peace and for God's protection over our country, our lawmakers, and all those in harm's way this terrible day. May peace-loving Americans of good will throughout the United States come together to engender peace, reconciliation and healing in our wounded and broken nation, which remains and must always be one, under God."