No, Donald Trump. Murder is murder. The most pro-life president in history decided Tuesday to defend abortion exceptions for rape and incest.
Apparently Trump isn’t aware of the ample evidence that abortion is worse for rape victims than choosing life—and that abortion is never necessary to save the mother’s life.
Trump made the comments during a Tuesday interview with John Solomon. “I’m a person that feels that the exceptions are very important for a lot of reasons,” Trump said, according to LifeNews. “If you don’t have the exceptions, it’s very, very hard — and I think that’s been proven — it’s very, very hard to win an election.” He was arguing for abortion exceptions for rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother. He’s also wrong.
The argument for exceptions makes no sense. If abortion kills a baby, it always kills a baby. The baby does not cease to be a human being with a unique soul because one (or more) of his parents is a sinner or a criminal. There is certainly no indication in the Bible that compromise with evil is permissible for material reasons like election success, especially an evil as obvious as murder. But Trump is also wrong that being too pro-life makes it almost impossible to win elections.
It is true that, while the majority of Americans are pro-life, most of them support some exceptions for abortion. But it is also true that all Republican governors who signed or supported pro-life legislation restricting abortions not only won their elections in 2022, but won by significant margins—some in outright landslides. Even as Republicans under-performed in some areas in 2022, pro-life governors won easily.
You are never going to make everyone happy, and Trump is foolish to think he can do so. The minority of Americans who are strongly committed to abortion really do believe in abortion qua abortion, not in abortion as a method for helping women. Those would be the radical Democrats, the same people who attack pro-life pregnancy centers and praise abortion as a positive good. And instead of trying to compromise with baby murder to please moderates, perhaps Trump ought to consider campaigning harder on issues that do appeal to everyone, such as improving the economy. Or maybe explain to voters exactly what abortion entails, and how it hurts not just the baby, but the mother. When was the last time a politician described in respectful and scientific detail what an abortion is and the psychological impact it has on those involved?
In 2011, psychologist Dr. Priscilla Coleman cited multiple studies to argue that abortion is tied to an increased risk of mental health problems. A 2019 study found that women who get abortions have a higher risk of depression—even if the pregnancies were unwanted. While women pressured into abortions of wanted babies had the highest depression risk (and a higher drug addiction rate), women who aborted unwanted babies “had a 94% higher risk of subsequent suicidal thoughts than women without a history of abortion. They were also 270% more likely to report subsequent alcohol abuse or dependence.”
Related: Dems Want to Run Constitutional End-Around on Abortion by Reviving the Equal Rights Amendment
Most importantly, in September 2022, LifeNews cited evidence from “doctors, researchers, counselors and victims of sexual abuse” that abortion just adds to the trauma of rape victims. And in 2019, “Medical leaders representing more than 30,000 doctors said intentionally killing a late-term unborn baby in an abortion is never necessary to save a mother’s life.”
Also in 2019, more than a thousand OB-GYNs and maternal healthcare experts announced in the Dublin Declaration, “As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynecology, we affirm that direct abortion – the purposeful destruction of the unborn child — is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.”
From Health Research Funding:
1. Women who have an abortion are 3x more likely that women of child-bearing age in the general population to commit suicide.
2. The increased risk percentage of women who have an abortion compared to women in the general population of having at least one mental health issue: 81%.
3. Teen girls are up to 10x more likely to attempt suicide then their counterparts who have not had an abortion.
4. Teen girls who have had an abortion are up to 4x more likely to successfully commit suicide when compared to older women who have had an abortion.
5. About 45% of women who have had an abortion report having suicidal feelings immediately following their procedure…9. 1995 data suggests that the rate of deliberate self-harm is 70% higher after abortion than after childbirth.
10. The British Journal of Psychiatry found an 81% increased risk of mental trauma after abortion.
The list could go on, but you get the point. Because abortion really is murder of an innocent life, it has serious detrimental effects on the mothers as well. Again, think about women who have experienced rape and incest. Would we add a second trauma on top of the first, and call it helpful?
One of Trump’s greatest triumphs was in the pro-life field. Roe v. Wade was overturned because of his pro-life policies and pro-life appointments. It is strange to begin backtracking now on one of the defining features of his presidency.
There can be no compromise on abortion. But there doesn’t need to be. What we need from our politicians is real leadership and instruction on the pro-life issue, not unscientific and cowardly pandering.
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