As the March for Life approaches, there is a growing rift between the Trump administration and the pro-life movement. That rift might not be obvious to the rank and file—Vice President JD Vance is headlining the March, and other Trump loyalists will also take the stage. Earlier this month, however, Marjorie Dannenfelser—the president of SBA Pro-Life America, the most powerful political pro-life group in the country—took the extraordinary step of admitting in a TV interview that the pro-life movement is “not safe” in the Republican Party.
It should have been clear from the beginning that Trump was not a “true believer.” Yes, Trump was clearly personally appalled by late-term abortion. Yes, Trump was willing to cut a transactional deal for the pro-life movement’s support, and to his credit he delivered on that deal after SBA knocked on a million doors for him in 2016 and helped deliver him the presidency. Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence (the pro-life movement’s man in the White House in Trump 1) and Mitch McConnell, delivered the Supreme Court, and the Court overturned Roe.
As Dannenfelser records in her essential memoir Life Is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and their Mothers, it took the pro-life movement a decade and a half to become a key force within the GOP. In America, GOP presidential hopefuls had to pretend to be pro-life even if they were not to get through the primaries. But ironically, although Trump’s previous track record on abortion was appalling, his no-holds-barred approach to politics made him a formidable ally, and he was willing to describe abortion in graphic terms. In short, Trump honored the transactional deal.
To reward him, some pro-life leaders gave him an ill-advised nickname, both in recognition of what Trump had been willing to do as well as to stroke his infamously fragile ego. Millions of GOP voters accepted that Trump was “the most pro-life president,” and he became the standard for what a “pro-life president” is. Then, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the battlelines of the abortion wars were redrawn. The pro-life movement lost a series of state-level referendums; the losing streak didn’t stop until Governor Ron DeSantis successfully defeated the $110 million abortion campaign in Florida.
It became clear that Trump saw his transactional deal with the pro-life movement as complete. Roe was now overturned. Abortion was a state-level issue. But Trump was clearly concerned that the pro-life movement was now a liability. In 2016, he needed them to win. This time, the GOP was now a Trump machine, and they’d already dubbed him the “most pro-life president.” Trump promptly removed the decades-old pro-life plank from the GOP platform (intervening personally to do so), condemned six-week abortion bans (this while the Florida abortion referendum was underway), and endorsed IVF, all while expressing visible frustration when pro-life leaders called him out.
In 2016, the pro-life movement was one of the most powerful factions in the GOP. Now, the conservative movement has been largely replaced by the “MAGA” movement, which defies description and can best be described as whatever Trump wants. Much of the current infighting in the conservative world is over precisely this question. What role does the pro-life movement play in the GOP going forward? The Republican Party has been one of the last major power players in the Western world that paid at least lip service to the pro-life cause.
While Trump II is clearly preferable to a Harris-Walz administration, it has also constituted a series of disappointments (under their breath, some pro-life leaders will say “betrayals”). Trump has consistently pushed for IVF, pitching a range of policies and urging the Republican Party to “own” the issue. He has advocated compromise on the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of tax dollars for abortion and has saved millions of lives. Worst of all, his administration has approved a generic new abortion pill that will “normalize” pill abortions even further and make it increasingly accessible even as the percentage of such abortions exceeds 60 percent of the U.S. total.
Some pro-life leaders are finally willing to play hardball with a president who famously responds to pressure by hitting back. In the Washington Examiner, Peter Laffin stated that “Trump-Vance is the most anti-life Republican administration in history.” At National Review, Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote a column titled “Let the Pro-Life Movement Declare Independence,” stating: “The Republican Party’s leadership has made its choice. Pro-lifers need to make theirs.” Despite some robust pro-life rhetoric from the vice president and the presence of allies like Marco Rubio in the cabinet, the betrayals of Trump II—especially his urging of “flexibility” on the Hyde Amendment—have proven too much.
Trump’s recent revelation that he fears being impeached if Republicans lose the fall midterms has only strengthened abortion opponents’ belief that 2026 races can provide them powerful leverage to push the president to take their demands more seriously.
To reassert their influence, leading abortion opponents are threatening to redirect or withhold some of their pledged tens of millions in midterms spending and the labor of their volunteer armies. Others are exploring backing primary campaigns against any Republicans they view as too soft on the issue. And in both public statements and private talks with the administration, conservative activists are speaking directly to Trump’s fears of a blue wave. If Republicans fail to keep abortion opponents in their camp, said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “[Trump will] be impeached, and every one of his Cabinet secretaries will be dragged in for committee hearings on every day that ends in Y, and the result will be nothing happens in the next two years. So there’s a lot riding on this.”
Pro-life groups think that if they pull their doorknockers, they can make a difference in tight races. White House officials are convinced that pro-life groups are bluffing and unconvinced “that voters motivated by abortion will stay home.” The Democrats have gone all in on abortion, and the Trump administration’s pitch essentially amounts to: Aren’t you glad we’re not them? As one GOP insider noted: “The GOP sticks with the pro-life cause generally because—unlike 30 or 40 years ago—most GOP senior electeds are sincerely pro-life themselves. They want to help the cause as much as they can without, well, losing elections.”
Looking forward, the pro-life movement wants to ensure that the Trump pivot away from the pro-life movement is temporary, and that the next GOP candidate corrects course. As Politico reported:
Several groups have requested meetings with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as other possible presidential contenders, including several GOP senators, governors and wealthy businessmen. Though those meetings have yet to take place, abortion opponents are already discussing how to convince these 2028 presidential hopefuls to commit to a “statement of principles.”
“The pro-life movement is looking at 2028, looking at the future of the Republican Party and [they’re] concerned that if they don’t do anything to show that they have some independence — that they’re not just an appendix on the MAGA movement — that they’re just going to be taken for granted,” said Patrick Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank. “They have to flex their muscles a little bit.”
The remaining three years of Trump II will be key for the pro-life movement. Will they be able to reassert influence in Washington, especially if on key issues such as the Hyde Amendment Trump turns out to be a foe? Will key GOP figures such as JD Vance commit to movement priorities going forward, or will they continue the Trump trajectory? And finally, how will “MAGA” respond to the pro-life movement’s assertion of principles? I have been viciously attacked by Trump administration officials online merely for highlighting Trump’s pro-abortion comments—for some Trump loyalists, anything short of groveling constitutes ingratitude.
It remains to be seen what a post-Trump “MAGA” movement will look like, or if it will even survive without Trump at the helm. But as the right-wing civil war rages in earnest, pro-lifers must be laser-focused on what matters most: saving babies from abortion. Trump is not “the most pro-life president.” Surely now those who insisted he was can see what some of us have been saying for years. But still, there are allies in the administration, and the time to assert pro-life principles is now. Lives are on the line, and much depends on this moment—and this movement.
