The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
There is nothing even remotely surprising about Donald Trump’s latest capitulation on abortion.
Trump lives in Florida, which restricts abortion after six weeks’ gestation. On Thursday, when asked in an NBC interview how he would vote on Florida’s referendum to prohibit restrictions on abortion before viability, Trump conceded that he would “be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
In other words, he is “pro-life” but not really. What else is new?
Even as I sat writing this column, Trump “clarified” his position on the Florida referendum. He now says he will vote against it. We’ll see.
There was a widespread outcry from supporters who seem to think his initial statement is indicative of some newfound capriciousness. One headline called his remark a “shocking abortion comment.”
Disappointing, yes. But shocking? Not in the least.
Despite the moniker bestowed upon him by the pro-life community and the accolades he received from its leaders during his first presidential campaign and term in office, Trump — “the most pro-life president in history” — has never been ideologically aligned with many of his most ardent supporters.
Indeed, readers might remember that before he ran as a Republican presidential candidate, Trump was decidedly “pro-choice.” He told Tim Russert on “Meet the Press” in 1999 that while “I hate the concept of abortion … I am pro-choice in every respect.”
Of course, people’s beliefs are not static; their minds and hearts can change over time and with new information. And no one loves a conversion story quite like the pro-life community.
But these comments were only the beginning of the many positions on abortion Trump would hold in the succeeding decades. He supported funding Planned Parenthood, then didn’t. He suggested that women seeking abortions should be criminally penalized. He said abortion laws need all kind of exceptions. He flirted with a 15-week federal abortion ban. And he criticized his own party for its poor messaging on the matter.
In fairness, Trump did follow through with his promise to nominate textualist Supreme Court justices, each of whom voted to ultimately (and correctly) overturn Roe v. Wade and its imagined right to abortion.
In this sense, the pro-life movement’s greatest success may never have been realized without Trump, so credit where it’s due.
But nothing about Trump’s most recent rebuff of the pro-life movement is unprecedented. Careful observers will recall that around this time last year, Trump declined to commit to a national abortion ban. It’s deja vu all over again.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, recently declared that Trump would veto a national abortion ban. And last month, no doubt a consequence of Trump’s influence, Republican delegates voted to remove any language in opposition to abortion from the party platform.
At the time, I argued that this was a shrewd decision for a party that has not been able to ballast itself after the fall of Roe — and one whose presidential candidate’s inarticulateness on the matter makes him uniquely vulnerable to Democratic attacks.
But it’s also indicative that with Trump at the party’s helm, it’s most cherished principles will be sacrificed for political expediency. Anyone who listens to Trump speak about abortion would immediately recognize that he is not a true believer.
On balance, Trump’s apparent shift might help him on the margins by making his presidency slightly more palatable to independent suburban voters (women especially).
Most Republicans — and probably most pro-lifers — won’t shun Trump at the polls, either, if only because the alternative is so much worse for their cause.
But they will have to decide if this is the direction they want to take and if they can continue to support leaders whose “principles” — on the most fundamental of issues — so readily shift with the wind.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
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