November 10, 2023
On Wednesday night in Miami, there were competing events between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. For the Trump campaign, a classic rally in Hialeah Florida for his most ardent fans. For the RNC, the 3rd televised debate between the current front-runners that decided to show up.
The topic of abortion and life made appearances at both events.
TO READ ABOUT THE ‘MAKE TRUMP PRO LIFE AGAIN’ RALLY, CLICK HERE
On the debate stage, the candidates were asked by the debate moderators about the issue of abortion. Here were their best responses.
Ron DeSantis: “The Democrats have taken a position that they will not identify the point at which there should be any protection all the way up until birth. That is wrong and we cannot stand for that,”
Nikki Hayley: “As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life. Let’s find a consensus. We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore.”
Tim Scott: “We need a 15-week federal limit. I would certainly as president have a 15-week national limit. I would not allow states like California, Illinois, or New York to have abortion up until the day of birth.”
Vivek Ramaswamy: ”We live in an era of reliable genetic paternity tests that are 100% reliable, so we can say men deserve more responsibility, so we can tell women, ‘We’re all in this together.’ It’s not men’s rights vs. women’s rights. It’s about human rights.”
Chris Christie: “In my home state of New Jersey, it goes up to nine months that you get an abortion. I find that morally reprehensible, but that is what the people of our state have voted for, and we should not short circuit that process until every state’s people have the right to weigh in on it.”
Across town, President Trump said nothing about abortion – but Students for Life Action was there and had a lot to say. As covered in Rolling Stone Magazine and Yahoo News:
“Protesters upset over Donald Trump’s stance on abortion gathered outside the former president’s rally in South Florida on Wednesday.
They weren’t pro-choice, though — they were anti-abortion activists upset that Trump, the one person most directly responsible for the end of Roe v. Wade, is in their view, caving on abortion.”
“We’re out here to send a message not only to Trump, but to the whole GOP party that we want our candidates to be unapologetically and fundamentally pro-life,” said Mary-Logan Miske, a campus organizer with Students for Life. Over the past year, Trump had failed that test, in her view. “He blamed pro-lifers for the loss of our midterms. He said that this issue, [abortion], isn’t a federal issue. And his latest thing was he basically said that DeSantis passing a heartbeat bill was a terrible, terrible thing.”
This cuts to the core of what Students for Life Action believes: that you cannot run from the abortion bully. As has been stated in numerous articles, the Democrats appear set to go all in on abortion in 2024. Unsurprising, because their polling is terrible on literally everything else.
This is a challenge that the Republican Party will have to face – and so will the pro-life movement. As our President Kristan Hawkins wrote recently in a letter regarding this past week’s election losses: “this quest for an abortion-free America is a marathon and not a sprint.”
In previous blogs, we have laid out before what we think are winning strategies for the Republican Party when it comes to boldly protecting life. What’s abundantly clear is that weak and moderate positions on the issue isn’t going to win elections – 15 weeks isn’t a winner. But we’ve seen that Heartbeat Legislation can.
That speaks louder than any answer at any rally or debate ever could.