Donald Trump blurred his position on abortion last week, refusing to support a 15-week national ban on the procedure and saying the issue should be left to the individual states.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the 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,” Trump said in a video message on 8 April.
The next day, the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, except those intended to save the life of the mother – a decision Trump criticised, saying it went too far.
The about-face led pro-life advocates to question the former president’s commitment. Former vice president Mike Pence called Trump’s decision not to support a national ban “a slap in the face”.
The National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis wrote on social media that while a Biden administration would be worse on abortion than a Trump one, “pro-lifers need to recognise that Donald Trump is not a pro-life candidate, and we shouldn’t assume he’ll govern like this issue matters to him”.
Other pro-life groups maintained their support for Trump. Frank Pavone, the defrocked priest who still leads the organisation Priests for Life, “thanked” Trump for his message.
“[Trump] has not wavered on any of the pro-life positions or executive actions he has taken (including depriving the abortion industry of federal funds), or judges he has appointed, and we will again see such progress in a second term,” Pavone said.
It is not clear how this will influence how religion informs the 2024 election, because the Biden administration has doubled down on its pro-choice positions and Democrats nationwide see abortion rights as a winning issue this November.
A new survey from the Pew Research Centre indicated the effect of political polarisation on US Catholics, with 89 per cent of Catholics who identify as progressive or as Democrats registering a favourable view of Pope Francis while only 63 per cent of Catholics who identify as conservative or Republican did so.
The partisan divide mirrors an ethnic one: 61 per cent of white Catholics lean Republican while 60 per cent of Hispanic Catholics lean Democratic.
The Pope is viewed favourably by three-quarters of Catholics overall, though that figure represents an eight-point drop from where it stood in 2021.
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