Trump Tries to Convince Anti-Abortion Voters that He Is for Real. Again.

He plans to sign a 20-week abortion ban, defund Planned Parenthood and more if elected.

Seth Wenig/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Donald Trump cemented his conversion to an opponent of abortion—and extended his outreach to pro-life voters—with an announcement Friday of the formation of his campaign’s pro-life coalition. The coalition will be headed by Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abortion advocacy group.

For Dannenfelser, this is the culmination of a rapid evolution on Trump’s candidacy. In January, she signed on to a letter from pro-life leaders complaining that they were “disgusted” by Trump’s treatment of women and that Trump could not be trusted to “defend both unborn children and the dignity of women.” The letter explicitly urged voters “to support an alternative candidate.” 

In the past month, Dannenfelser has been forthright about the fact that Trump might be a liability for anti-abortion candidates for lower offices. Because Trump was recently a supporter of abortion rights, anti-abortion advocates have worried that skepticism about his pro-life bona fides might discourage conservative voters from going to the polls. This concern about the inconsistency of Trump’s anti-abortion stance has led the Susan B. Anthony List to spend heavily on efforts to turn out pro-life voters in battleground Senate and House races in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and Utah.

In a letter announcing the coalition, Trump reinforced his commitment to the three main promises on abortion that he’s repeated throughout the election: to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices, to defund Planned Parenthood, and to sign into law a 20-week abortion ban that stalled in the Senate in 2015.

Trump also made a new, fourth commitment: to enshrine the Hyde Amendment—a provision that prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion—into permanent law. Hillary Clinton has said she will work to repeal the Hyde Amendment, and this year’s Democratic platform included language on a Hyde repeal for the first time ever.

The Trump campaign made the announcement of the pro-life coalition in a letter released Friday. Additional co-chairs of the groups will be announced later this month.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate