Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has attempted to strip Democrats of their No. 1 election attack point against conservatives on abortion, but conservative groups remain concerned it is a path to permitting killing of the unborn.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, and a coalition led by the Family Research Council are reportedly pushing the Republican Party to stay vigilant on abortion restrictions during the upcoming 2025 GOP platform meetings, The Hill reported Sunday.
Trump's official abortion position has long been to keep abortion lawmaking a state's right, deradicalizing Democrats on the issue, but defenders of the unborn are concerned there are just too many Democrat-run states that will unwind the progress the Supreme Court's rejection of Roe v. Wade has made.
But Trump says "you have to get elected," warning if conservatives keep pushing abortion as an election issue, it will only serve to elect Democrats, help them win, and create unrestricted nationwide abortions all over again.
Still, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser is seeking Trump campaign assurance "that it will not gut the pro-life plank of the platform," according to the report.
"Every indication is that the campaign will muscle through changes behind closed doors," Dannenfelser told The Hill in a statement. "If the Trump campaign decides to remove national protections for the unborn in the GOP platform, it would be a miscalculation that would hurt party unity and destroy pro-life enthusiasm between now and the election."
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., knows his state will protect the unborn, but he fears a Democrat-led Senate still holds the cards and Trump's strategy of just stripping Democrats' election weaponization of abortion is not an effective winning argument.
"I'm keenly aware, we don't have the 60 votes in the Senate, but the worst thing we can do is not talk about it at all, and somehow make people presume this is no longer a value," Lankford told Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins in a podcast last week.
"The way you win the argument is to keep talking about it, not to talk about it less. So as Republicans, we've got to have this national focus, talk about it."
The Trump campaign remains closely involved in the GOP platform "streamlining," but conservatives still want to keep a strong pro-life stance on abortion, according to the report.
"I am a little concerned about some of the hardball tactics that were used in trying to get some people on the platform committee, and also making sure that certain people couldn't serve in the platform committee," an RNC member told The Hill.
"But they don't want it watered down to where it's nothing but vanilla mush. If the platform doesn't stand for anything, why have anything at all?"
Arizona state Rep. Alex Kolodin refused to commit to the Trump campaign bulldozing anti-abortion activists.
"I'm sure there will be some moderate attempts to water down the very strong pro-life position that we’ve taken in our platform, and we absolutely have to be vigilant about it – I mean, the establishment is a real thing," Kolodin told The Hill. "But I would simply say that before we start pointing fingers this way, or that way, maybe we ought to have some real direct one-on-one conversations.
Kolodin said he hasn't seen evidence of the campaign weighing in, "And that's something I think people should be skeptical of."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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