It’s unlikely President Trump is personally pro-life. More than once, his comments during the 2016 presidential campaign (as when he said women who get abortions ought to be punished) suggest he is generally unfamiliar with the pro-life side of the debate. It certainly suggests he is ignorant of the movement’s most basic and long-held principles. And as recently as 1999, he was describing himself as being “very pro-choice.”
The most likely scenario is that he’s neither particularly interested in the subject, nor has he given it much thought. But he seems to understand which side he needs to serve now.
On Friday, Trump handed the pro-life movement a major victory by becoming the first president to participate publicly in the March for Life, an annual gathering of pro-life activists in the nation’s capital to mark the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.
“Today tens of thousands of families, students, and patriots, and really just great citizens, gather here in our nation’s capital. You come from many backgrounds and many places, but you all come for one beautiful cause, to build a society where life is celebrated and protected and cherished,” the president said during an event in the White House Rose Garden. “Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the ‘right to life.’”
He added, “The March for Life is a movement born out of love: You love your families; you love your neighbors; you love our nation; and you love every child, born and unborn, because you believe that every life is sacred, that every child is a precious gift from God.”
As he spoke, and even prior to that, several networks covered his comments and the backdrop against which they delivered, meaning major newsrooms finally did something pro-life activists have long groused about: They gave the annual March for Life the coverage it deserves.
Though it's true many newsrooms begrudgingly cover the event every year, the coverage is usually either sparse or unforgivably stilted. On Friday, Trump’s address may not have done anything to change the tone most newsrooms use to cover the event, but it certainly guaranteed they would cover it. And there’s no really harmful downside to this, except, of course, for the likelihood that the president himself is not particularly pro-life. This likely matters very little to the march's supporters. And this is the at the heart of why so many self-described social conservatives support (and even defend) Trump.
He is an imperfect vessel, but he’s their vessel. Hell, he doesn’t even have to believe what they believe, just so long as he advances the cause. As long as he’s advancing the cause, departures from orthodoxy and personal failings can be forgiven. It's certainly preferable to the alternative.
After all, an imperfect advocate is better than a hostile adversary.
