Pro-Life Leaders Push Back on Trump's 'No Exceptions' Blame for Midterm Losses
January 3, 2023 January 3, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD
Former President Donald Trump accepted no blame for Republicans' failure to achieve the anticipated "red wave" results in the midterm elections, but, instead, pointed a finger at pro-life candidates who insisted on "No Exceptions" to abortion as the reason for the party's losses.
"It wasn't my fault that the Republicans didn't live up to expectations in the MidTerms," Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. "I was 233-20! 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."
"Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again," the former president added, noting as well, "Plus, Mitch stupid $'s!"
Some national pro-life leaders, however, disagreed with Trump's characterization of the reason for the GOP's mediocre performance in the midterms.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America Action (SFLAction), posted in a Twitter thread that Trump "needs to be corrected on his statement about pro-lifers and the outcome of 2022 elections."
Former President Trump needs to be corrected on his statement about pro-lifers and the outcome of 2022 elections.
This November, leaders like Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Budd, and Sen. Marco Rubio, who proudly talked about their pro-life convictions, won in landslides.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) January 2, 2023
"This November, leaders like Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Budd, and Sen. Marco Rubio, who proudly talked about their pro-life convictions, won in landslides," she observed. "Meanwhile, Trump-backed politicians like Dr. Mehmet Oz & Blake Masters, who had challenges clearly defining their convictions, failed to win votes."
"Don't forget about the disastrous flip flopping MN Gov. Candidate Scott Jensen," Hawkins added, "who went from saying he was 100% pro-life to proclaiming his new-found love for abortion while holding his infant grandson, something I parodied during the campaign."
…who went from saying he was 100% pro-life to proclaiming his new-found love for abortion while holding his infant grandson, something I parodied during the campaign.
"[V]irtually every state legislator who championed SFLAction inspired pro-life bills – from Chemical Abortion Pill Regulation to Heartbeat Legislation – was re[-]elected," she continued. "In Nebraska and North Carolina changes in the state legislature and courts will make state gains possible."
Following the midterm elections in November, Hawkins noted that while radical pro-abortion Democrat candidates ran on demonizing the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs that returned decisions about abortion to the states, still "every state legislator who championed SFLAction-inspired pro-life bills was reelected."
As The Star News Network reported, Hawkins referred to the 2022 midterm election as "the beginning of a reset following more than 50 years of assumptions about abortion."
"In the coming sessions, we look forward to working with strong leaders and introducing pro-life legislation in states like Florida, Nebraska, and North Carolina," she explained, adding that, thanks to the results of Tuesday's elections, "new pro-life supreme courts and filibuster-proof majorities make our investment in key states span to new horizons with exciting opportunities to protect life in law."
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also released a press statement reacting to Trump's social media post.
"The approach to winning on abortion in federal races, proven for a decade is this: state clearly the ambitious consensus pro-life position and contrast that with the extreme view of Democrat opponents," Dannenfelser said. "We look forward to hearing that position fully articulated by Mr. Trump and all presidential candidates."
"There was ALSO a profound midterm lesson for future federal candidates: those who adopted the Ostrich Strategy on abortion lose," the pro-life leader added.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, observed in her column Tuesday that "no matter the party in charge in a given state, be they Republican or Democrat, the babies are always at risk."
Brown recommends a new "fundamental question" for the pro-life movement to consider as the New Year unfolds: "Why do politics dictate whether or not innocent people will be murdered?"
"The answer is quite simply that the pro-life movement is in large part fundamentally focused on elections and party," she said, adding:
[P]erhaps this is the year when most pro-life Americans will finally realize that the act of aborting a child is wrong no matter which state one lives in and no matter which political party is in charge. The sad truth is that after one half a century, that deadly act has become nothing more than a political issue. This is a travesty that has left millions of dead bodies in its wake.
Brown urged pro-life Americans to stop framing unborn babies as "a political agenda item."
"This requires us to refocus our language so that we are talking about persons who exist from the beginning regardless of what sort of political party is calling the shots," she said.
"But after all these years, redirecting the attention of the public—even those within the pro-life movement—is not going to be easy," Brown added. "This is so because politics has become ground zero for not only pro-life people but for their fundraising apparatus. In the process we have lost the truth, and it is my solemn hope that in 2023 we find it and begin to talk about it."
Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo "Voting Booths" by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
News, National, Faith, Politics, President TrumpDonald Trump, abortion, Republican Party, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Midterm Elections, Kristan Hawkins, pro-life movement, Judie Brown
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