(Daily Caller News Foundation) — A major pro-life advocacy organization blasted a statement former President Donald Trump gave in response to a question about a federal abortion ban.
The former president said that he was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade to leave the abortion debate up to the states and not enforce it at the federal level, according to the Washington Post. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a statement Thursday calling Trump’s take “unacceptable.”
“President Trump’s assertion that the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion solely to the states is a completely inaccurate reading of the Dobbs decision and is a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser wrote in response. “Life is a matter of human rights, not states’ rights. Saying that the issue should only be decided at the states is an endorsement of abortion up until the moment of birth, even brutal late-term abortions in states like California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey.”
A spokesperson for Trump told the Washington Post that “President Donald J. Trump believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level.” Dannenfelser made it clear that pro-life America would not stand behind a president that does not support a “15-week federal minimum standard when the unborn child can feel excruciating pain.”
Trump has been criticized by pro-lifers for his position on abortion after he blamed the 2022 midterms on Republicans’ handling of the issue.
“It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of voters,” Trump stated in a post on Truth Social.
Many pro-life groups felt that the former president was “way out of line” and said that Trump was going to lose touch with the base if he continued pushing a moderate abortion stance, especially with potential 2024 candidates like Ron DeSantis, who recently signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country this month. Dannenfelser encouraged Trump to reevaluate his position and “forge national consensus and progress on the most egregious human rights violation of our time.”
Trump did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
