Trump is a huge hero in the anti-abortion right. They apparently think he’s sincere in his newfound reverence for their cause. Desperate to keep them in the fold, he’s going the extra mile:
President Trump plans to address an annual rally of anti-abortion demonstrators on Friday in Washington, in what would be the first appearance by a sitting president at the March for Life, one of the movement’s marquee events.
Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement, made on Twitter on Wednesday as the Senate began hearing opening arguments in his impeachment trial, is his latest gesture of support for a cause dear to evangelical Christians who are a core part of his conservative base.
No president has personally attended the march in its 47-year history. Past Republican presidents might have been inclined to attend, but either on the advice of staff or their own instincts saw it as a step too far and instead showed their support in less visible ways, like through remote messages or by meeting with activists.
He isn’t sincere:
This pro-life president … was famously pro-choice before deciding that he wanted to be the Republican nominee. In 2016, he refused to answer Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s question about whether he’d ever paid for or been otherwise involved in the procurement of an abortion. And above is an MSNBC clip of a 2003 Trump appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show in which he laughs about being talked into not aborting a surprise pregnancy. (It’d seem, given the timing of Trump’s children’s births, that he’s talking about Marla Maples, who’s said the conception of their daughter, Tiffany, was a surprise, and MSNBC asserts as much. But no one says Maples’ name in the clip.)
Also of note: The context of the discussion above is that Trump is talking about how pleased he is that his then-girlfriend Melania has been consistently taking birth control pills.
These right-to lifers don’t care for the birth control either.:
The organization that runs the March for Life successfully sued the Obama administration to be exempted from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirements.
Sure Trump is doing what they want. But they can’t be sure he’ll stick with it once he’s re-elected and doesn’t need their votes anymore because he clearly doesn’t believe a word he says on the subject. Do they care? I’m not sure anymore.