Leading pro-life advocates are not happy about Donald Trumps’s support for changing the Republican Party’s platform to support aborting babies conceived in rape or incest is earning him criticism from a leading pro-life advocate.
As LifeNews.com reported yesterday, Trump said he “absolutely” wants to change the Republican party’s current pro-life platform to promote abortions in cases of rape or incest.
“Yes I would. Absolutely, for the three exceptions, I would,” he said. Trump was then pressed further and asked if he would make an exception to protect the “health” of the mother. “I would leave it for the life of the mother, but I would absolutely have the three exceptions.”
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Now, top pro-life leaders are criticizing Trump over his comments, saying he is selling out unborn children. From Politico:
“The suggestion that the platform should weaken its position on the pro-life issue would set back years of hard work in the pro-life movement,” said Tom McClusky, vice president of March for Life Action.
At the same time, Trump has not toned down his praise of Planned Parenthood, which he says “has done very good work for many, many — for millions of women” despite the fact that the group is reviled by anti-abortion advocates as “a seller of baby body parts.”
“He says ‘I’m pro-life, abortion is wrong’ and I’m not sure that he has taken it beyond that,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, which has endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz. “People who have been involved in the pro-life movement — in the politics, in the culture, for anywhere from one month to 40 plus years — are very well immersed in the language, the issues and I think they just see his lack of ability to talk about the issue as a problem.”
Trump has been so bad on pro-life issues that Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List says her group would have to serious ponder if he would be worthy of support as the nominee — though SBA would obviously strongly oppose abortion activists Hillary Clinton.
“Politics is always about contrast and always about a choice and we’re 100 percent sure about where Hillary stands,” Dannenfelser said. “If it comes down to Trump, we’re going to have to look really closely at the difference between those two people.”
As LifeNews reported yesterday, Lila Rose, president and founder of the pro-life organization Live Action, told LifeNews.com she takes issue with Trump on supporting the aborting of babies not conceived lovingly.
“Rape and incest are horrific injustices, and those who commit these acts should always be punished to the full extent of the law. U.S. law forbids the use of the death penalty as a punishment for rapists, yet current law permits killing the innocent preborn children conceived in rape. Abortion should not be held up as a pathway to healing from rape or incest, as it doesn’t undo the crime; it just adds more violence to what the survivor has already endured,” Rose explained.
Rose continued: “If you are pro-life, you can’t say certain lives are less worthy or don’t deserve protection because of how they are conceived. To say children conceived in rape are somehow less human and shouldn’t be allowed to live is a grave injustice. Survivors of rape and incest and their children must be shown compassion and be supported by their communities. While some mothers choose to keep their children, adoption is the option for those who don’t.”
“Over 1000 medical professionals from around the world have publicly declared that abortion is never medically necessary to save a mother’s life. While life-saving medical treatment may result in the death of the child in a mother’s womb, there is a fundamental difference between providing that legitimate treatment and elective abortion,” she concluded.
Trump’s platform comment is the latest in a long line of comments from Trump upsetting pro-life voters — including multiple remarks praising the Planned Parenthood abortion business, saying abortion laws should not be changed and saying women should be punished for having abortions and flip-flopping hours later.
