Blaze News original: Trump's abortion comments put him at odds with pro-life advocates as he eyes the White House

Former President Donald Trump registered his disapproval earlier this month after the Arizona Supreme Court issued a ruling that would allow for the enforcement of a law that prohibits performing abortions except in cases where a mother's life is in peril.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has indicated that the earliest the law could become enforceable would be June 8. The law reads, "A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years."

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother, said that the state needed to take action to "remedy what has happened."

"The Supreme Court in Arizona went too far on their Abortion Ruling, enacting and approving an inappropriate Law from 1864. So now the Governor and the Arizona Legislature must use HEART, COMMON SENSE, and ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened. Remember, it is now up to the States and the Good Will of those that represent THE PEOPLE. We must ideally have the three Exceptions for Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother. This is important! Democrats are the EXTREMISTS - They support Abortion up to the moment of birth, and even execution of Babies, in some cases, after birth. This should not be. Arizona Legislature, please act as fast as possible!" Trump declared in a post on Truth Social.

Seth Dillon, CEO of the popular satire site the Babylon Bee, told Blaze News that he takes issue with some of Trump's recent remarks but added that the Republican presidential contender remains "the obvious choice."

"The pro-life position that I hold and defend maintains that it isn't possible to go too far in protecting innocent, defenseless babies. Trump is out of step with pro-lifers there. But he's still the obvious choice. There's just no way you could prefer to see a Democrat win if you're pro-life," Dillon noted, echoing remarks he previously made in a post on X.

Dillon's sentiments are likely shared by many other pro-lifers as well.

Trump is slated to face off against Democratic President Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential contest. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also seeking the presidency but has indicated that he is pro-choice.

"While I disagree with him that some abortion is permissible (if life is ever sacred, it's always sacred), Trump is doing what politicians do. He's aiming at compromise to avoid alienating voters. Whether that's the best strategy is for others to decide. I'm not a politician. I say what I think is true and right, regardless of what the polls say," Dillon told Blaze News.

"In my view, being pro-abortion — even if it's just for rare circumstances — should be as politically toxic as being pro-slavery. It should be impossible to get elected taking that barbaric position. If it isn't, then we're failing in the fight for the culture. Put another way, the problem isn't that we're 'too pro-life.' It's that our culture is passionately pro-death. In that case, the culture — not our conviction that all human life is sacred — must change," he explained.

A 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling returned to states the authority to fully determine how to handle the issue of abortion. Three of the justices responsible for that ruling — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — were nominated by Trump during his White House tenure.

The decision declared, "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives."

Trump has said that he is "proudly the person responsible for the ending of ... Roe v. Wade."

"My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint," Trump said in a video released earlier this month, "states will determine by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state."

"Always go by your heart. But we must win. We have to win," Trump said.

But while pro-lifers have heralded the high court's 2022 rulingas a massive victory, they still advocate for an end to the ongoing abortion holocaust that persists in the U.S.

"The ultimate goal of the pro-life movement should be to end the scourge of state-sanctioned child sacrifice from these shores once and for all," BlazeTV host Steve Deace told Blaze News.

"To me, anything less than that as a desired and actually pursued goal isn't pro-life but playing a dangerous game with something I believe God takes very, very seriously. Now, people of good conscience on this matter can disagree on the best/most prudent way to pursue that goal, and I respect that. For example, I have deeply committed pro-life friends of mine who believed we are better off fighting this at the state level now even before Trump's position to that end. However, the former president went way too far in then also calling for states like Arizona and Florida to roll back their current pro-life protections, and he should be rebuked for that. It is one thing to say we are incrementally saving as many as we can. Entirely another to advocate going backwards to permit killing even more," Deace noted.

Blaze Media's Daniel Horowitz indicated during a phone interview that if conservatives don't advocate for themselves and express their displeasure with the former president, Trump will continue moving left on abortion as well as other matters.

"It's one thing to quietly and strategically focus on inflation and the invasion rather than leading on abortion headed into the election. But Trump is taking it a step further and obsessing about abortion to the point that he is now calling on Republican legislatures to actively weaken existing law. All that accomplishes is to show further weakness to the voters," Horowitz noted in a written statement.

"The real culprit for GOP lethargy at the ballot is a lack of coherent messaging and accomplishments on other critical quality-of-life issues. If they would step up their game on other issues, voters would not punish them for their stance on abortion. Unfortunately, Trump has also been moving to the left recently on other issues including Obamacare, Ukraine funding, and Bud Light. Taken together, this reeks more of desperation for donors than some sort of maverick MAGA strategy unique to abortion. We've seen this play from Republican candidates for decades," Horowitz said.

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