{"id":31957,"date":"2024-07-31T16:02:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T16:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=31957"},"modified":"2024-08-02T19:30:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T19:30:01","slug":"the-gop-ticket-goes-soft-on-chemical-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/the-gop-ticket-goes-soft-on-chemical-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"The GOP Ticket Goes Soft on Chemical Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Alexandra DeSanctis, originally published on July 30, 2024, National Review<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-life leaders refuse to hold the line as Trump and Vance indicate support for the majority of abortions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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In June, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in a case concerning regulation of chemical-abortion drugs, sometimes referred to as the abortion pill. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine <\/em>involved a challenge to the FDA\u2019s approval process for the two drugs used in chemical abortions \u2014 mifepristone and misoprostol \u2014 on the grounds that the process had been rushed and politically motivated, risking the health of women who use these drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court\u2019s ruling was silent on questions of substance; the justices ruled unanimously<\/a> that the health-care professionals challenging the FDA did not have standing in the case. In short, the ruling said nothing about the legality and safety of chemical-abortion drugs. And yet, in the course of the past month, both Donald Trump and J. D. Vance have claimed that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of legal chemical abortion \u2014 and indicated that they support this fictitious ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the June presidential debate<\/a>, when asked whether he would \u201cblock abortion medication\u201d as president, Trump had this to say: \u201cFirst of all, the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill. And I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in early July, just before being selected as Trump\u2019s running mate, Vance told an MSNBC host<\/a> much the same thing: \u201cThe Supreme Court made a decision saying that the American people should have access to that medication [chemical abortion]. Donald Trump has supported that opinion. I support that opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This penchant for willfully misunderstanding Court rulings is nothing new. Since 2022, Trump has been asserting that the Court in Dobbs<\/em> sent the question of abortion policy back to state governments \u2014 and has said he takes the same position \u2014 though the ruling was abundantly clear that the matter should be decided by the people and their representatives, leaving ample room for federal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidently convinced that softening on abortion is a wise political move, Trump and Vance have chosen to grossly misrepresent the Court\u2019s ruling in order to justify their newfound support for chemical abortion. It\u2019s buck-passing of the most devious sort, a half-hearted shrug at a ruling that never happened to give themselves cover as they wink at the vast majority<\/a> of abortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This calculated copout comes against the backdrop of the Trump-led push to water down the Republican platform\u2019s language on abortion. The GOP document no longer supports a human-life amendment to the Constitution, says only that the party opposes \u201cLate Term Abortion\u201d (capitalization in original), and removes any reference to the fundamental right to life of the unborn child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats remain the more extreme of the two parties on abortion, to be sure. But this does not excuse the GOP ticket\u2019s outright embrace of legal abortion, nor the choice of much of the pro-life movement to ignore it. As I wrote recently<\/a> for NRO, many of the most notable movement institutions and leaders have gone into contortions to claim that the much-weakened GOP platform is somehow a win for pro-lifers. Pro-life groups\u2019 statements after June\u2019s debate didn\u2019t say a word about Trump\u2019s position on chemical abortion or his misreading of Dobbs<\/em> and FDA<\/em>, and statements after Trump\u2019s selection of Vance were nothing but adulatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the pro-life movement and its supposed political champions to go soft on chemical abortion is not a minor concession. Increasingly, chemical abortion is becoming the entire ballgame. These procedures, which take place in the first few months of pregnancy, now account for about two-thirds of all abortions in the country and pose<\/a> significant risks<\/a> to pregnant mothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, since the Dobbs<\/em> decision two years ago, the national abortion rate has in fact increased<\/a> even in the wake of state pro-life laws, because in states where abortion is mostly unavailable women can still obtain abortion drugs via mail. The federal Comstock Act forbids mailing these drugs, but the Biden administration<\/a> has willfully misinterpreted the law to pretend that it can\u2019t be enforced. A future administration could choose to enforce this federal law, and doing so ought to be a major goal of the pro-life movement. But it appears that no one in GOP leadership \u2014 least of all the presidential and vice-presidential nominees \u2014 intends to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one thing for pro-lifers to reluctantly embrace the Republican ticket as the only alternative to the abortion extremism of the Left. It is another thing entirely to do so while ignoring this egregious shift in favor of legal abortion and pretending that the party and its nominees are as pro-life as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra DeSanctis<\/a> is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a contributing writer at National Review<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ask all Cincinnati Right to Life supporters to pray for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. A prayer page specifically for Ohio Senator Vance has been created\u00a0<\/strong>here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Alexandra DeSanctis, originally published on July 30, 2024, National Review Pro-life leaders refuse to hold the line as Trump and Vance indicate support for the majority of abortions. In June, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in a case concerning regulation of chemical-abortion drugs, sometimes referred to as the abortion pill. Food and Drug Administration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe GOP Ticket Goes Soft on Chemical Abortion - Cincinnati Right to Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/the-gop-ticket-goes-soft-on-chemical-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The GOP Ticket Goes Soft on Chemical Abortion - Cincinnati Right to Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Alexandra DeSanctis, originally published on July 30, 2024, National Review Pro-life leaders refuse to hold the line as Trump and Vance indicate support for the majority of abortions. 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