If there’s one thing people appreciate (sometimes begrudgingly) about Donald Trump, it’s that he doesn’t put much stock in public opinion. He makes decisions — popular and unpopular — regardless of what anyone thinks or how the media overreacts. If Americans don’t like it, too bad. If the Left tries to cancel, jail, or impeach him, fine. Unlike most politicians in the modern age, this president is his own man — with the exception of one issue: abortion.
It’s been an astonishing shift to observe in Trump, who bombed Iran over the whole world’s objections without batting an eye. Even now, eight months into a conflict that’s been a drag on his approval ratings, his global relationships, and America’s economy, the president continues the endless cycle of striking then negotiating with the Middle East tyrant. In many ways, his determination is admirable. The West has to take the threat that Iran poses — not just to Israel or the Middle East, but the world — seriously. While we can quibble about how the administration has gone about the war, the timeline, and the unconvincing case made to the American people on a very convincing matter, the president hasn’t been deterred.
In fact, over the summer, when reporters asked if he took the affordability crisis seriously, Trump replied that Americans’ financial challenges don’t motivate him. “Not even a little bit,” Trump said to the shock of the press. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran [is] they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he argued. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he stressed.
It was a jarring but candid look at the leader of the free world’s thinking. Trump put the existential threat of a nuclear attack above the economic sacrifices Americans would have to make to neutralize Iran. And while the president took flak from all sides for that remark, the reality is that no one will care about the price of eggs if they aren’t alive to buy them. And frankly, the majority of the nation elected Donald Trump to make those tough judgment calls.
But despite what must have been compelling intelligence to strike Iran, the public still wasn’t thrilled with the idea. Now, deep into the campaign that started in February, Pew Research notes that two-thirds of Americans (65%) are opposed to the current action in Iran, and 33% approve. Of course, as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins underscored on Thursday’s interview with C-SPAN, part of this is messaging — or a lack thereof. “I don’t think we communicated to the American people why they needed to make a sacrifice. I do think — and polling would show this historically — that Americans, if you will take time to explain to them why we’re doing something and why it’s going to cost them a little bit in the short term, most of them are willing to make that sacrifice for the benefit of their children and future generations. I don’t think that’s happened, and I think that’s a part of the problem.” Now, “the economy is a real issue.”
Regardless, Trump is unmoved — not by the political fallout, not even by the forecasted “blue wave” of the midterms. To him, the stability of the world and our national security are more important than which party holds the gavel next January. That’s a gamble he’s willing to take. The war will end, he insisted, as “soon as I want it to end.”
And yet, for reasons no conservative understands, this same maverick, a man uncowed by anything or anyone, seems uncharacteristically influenced by outside voices on another agenda that he dominated as a first-term president. After spending four years building the most pro-life legacy of any leader, including Ronald Reagan, Trump has inexplicably turned his back on the unborn in the chemical abortion debate.
For two years, the Republican base has pleaded with the White House to take a stronger stance on the abortion drug — to get off the sidelines and reinstate some of the safeguards that were in place during Trump’s first four years. Now that mifepristone accounts for more than 60% of abortions in America — abortions that are up more than 20% since Roe v. Wade was overturned — we’re talking about a significant life crisis. And it’s not just innocent babies who are paying the price for the pills’ dangerous explosion across America, but women too — almost 11% of whom are being rushed to emergency rooms to deal with the serious, life-threatening complications. Complications, we should add, that are 22 times higher than what the FDA warns on the label.
Despite the sky-high ER visits, despite the drugs being shipped into pro-life states against their will, despite the violations of federal law that make it illegal to ship the pills through the mail at all, and despite the dozens of horrifying cases of young girls and women being drugged, coerced, or poisoned with mifepristone, the administration maintains its eerie silence. Yes, the FDA is conducting a safety review of the drug — a review that’s now more than two years in the making — but the pill is still available. Without a doctor’s approval. To anyone, of any sex, for any reason, at any point in pregnancy.
Why? Because this president has decided, both publicly and privately, that abortion is a “political loser.” Never mind that polling disputes this. And never mind that he’s never cared about that when it comes to other issues. Trump has made up his mind that when it comes to this existential threat to America, the phantom risks are more consequential than hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. It boggles the mind, in large part because fixing this is not a heavy lift.
Reinstating the safety guidelines for mifepristone — like requiring an in-person doctor’s visit, for instance — was Trump’s policy during his first term. Nothing about it would come as a surprise to either side. Secondly, he’s not running for president again, so whatever political fallout he wrongly anticipates wouldn’t matter. Third, let’s talk about that so-called “political fallout,” because the polling doesn’t bear it out. In fact, what public opinion shows is an overwhelming consensus that this drug is more dangerous than advertised.
The White House might be surprised to learn that conservatives aren’t the only ones who want the abortion pill to be more strictly regulated. More than two-thirds of Americans support reinstating the abortion pill’s in-person medical visit requirement — including, drumroll, 63% of Democrats. Only 16% of Americans think the drug is “very safe” to begin with! This idea that everyone wants mifepristone to run wild through our postal service is bogus. And it’s a problem the president could solve with a literal stroke of his pen.
It’s one reason experts like FRC’s Joy Stockbauer are so confused. “For a president that has long claimed to be the most ‘pro-life’ leader the nation has ever had, President Trump is extremely hesitant to actually protect unborn children. If this administration has any hope of securing the allegiance of pro-life voters before Election Day,” she told The Washington Stand, “I’d suggest starting with taking real action against the lethal abortion drugs being shipped across our borders from foreign countries, in violation of pro-life and federal laws, and being forced on mothers against their will.”
For two years, Perkins has been frustrated in his attempts to change the White House’s mind. “While the Trump administration has changed other policies, they have not changed that one,” he lamented on C-SPAN Thursday. “That is immoral, absolutely immoral. And I have expressed that on multiple occasions. And I think that is undermining the legitimacy of this administration with many Christians.”
Longtime movement leaders like Chuck Donovan, former Charlotte Lozier Institute president and current co-founder of Science Alliance for Life and Technology (SALT), continue to shake their heads at the moral contradictions of the president’s first- and second-term policies. “The Trump team’s inaction on abortion drugs is hard to fathom,” he told TWS. He and his people “repeatedly promise reviews, then fail to deliver,” Donovan notes. “It looks false and misleading as one administration figure after another pledges action then disappears into the cloud.”
“His follow-through has been questionable,” he reiterated, “but his actions on Maduro and Iran were both bold and politically risky. There’s no such risk with assuring women and girls are not subjected to abortion pills without medical support. Here the Left is denying women medical care when they need it most. An April poll from CRC found two-thirds of Americans favor requiring these visits. A timid Trump is not what one expects to see.”
The president is willing to risk the fate of Republican Party control on even the possibility that Iran could attack and kill Americans. Isn’t it time he cared just as much about stopping the deadly weapon taking innocent lives in our nation right now?
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared at The Washington Stand.
Notice: This column is printed with permission. Opinion pieces published by AFN.net are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, AFN.net, our parent organization or its other affiliates.
