Republicans, led by Donald Trump, are in a headlong retreat on abortion. The latest evidence came this weekend, when Senator J. D. Vance said that Trump would veto a national ban on abortion were Congress to enact one, and implied that he would veto even a ban on abortions late in pregnancy. Before that, Trump said his presidency would be “great for women and their reproductive rights”: the latter phrase being generally used to describe an expansive right to abortion. And before that, Trump said he would not enforce existing federal law against the interstate shipment of abortion implements — and would thus connive at the federal government’s undermining pro-life state laws.
That’s a dereliction of the president’s constitutional duty to enforce the laws, and it’s a far cry from federal neutrality on abortion. It’s one thing for a Republican candidate for national office to say that a federal law against abortion is unattainable, or even undesirable. The first point is accurate at least in the short run, and some sincere pro-lifers believe the second on constitutional or prudential grounds. But the palpable panic among Republicans has reached the point that pro-lifers have to wonder if there’s any difference left between the parties on abortion. Pro-life activists and voters, who have been far too indulgent of Trump, ought to ask him to give them reasons to vote for him.
