Donald Trump, who was stung by a rebuke from the nation’s leading anti-abortion group, used a speech on Saturday before influential evangelicals in Iowa to highlight his actions as president in trying to restrict abortion rights.
Donald Trump listed his nominations of three conservative judges to the U.S. Supreme Court as his chief accomplishments, which paved the way for last year’s overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had affirmed a federal right to abortion.
Appearing via video to a gathering of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, Trump said, “Those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life.
Nobody thought it was going to happen. They thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for exactly that period of time, 50 years.”
Less than a year after the court overturned Roe, Trump has often avoided talking about abortion as he campaigns again for the White House, sidestepping the issue.
On Thursday, the Susan B. organization sharply rebuked his position that abortion restrictions should be left up to the states instead of the federal government. Anthony Pro-Life America group, which called it a “morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate.”
On Saturday, Trump did not take a stance on a national ban.
Instead, he ticked through a record as president that aimed to satisfy abortion opponents that form the core of evangelical Christians, who hold sway in the GOP primary contest and particularly Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses.
Applause For Trump
Donald Trump won applause by noting he was the first president to attend the annual March for Life abortion opposition rally.
The crowd of roughly 1,000 gathered in the suburban Des Moines event hall cheered when Trump noted his relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a symbol many evangelical Christians see as fulfilling biblical prophecy. “Every promise to you I made as a candidate, I fulfilled as president,” he said.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, who appeared in person before the group, used his speech earlier in the evening to celebrate Trump’s efforts to restrict abortion and take some bit of credit for himself.
Pence, long known for his conservative values, called the appointments the “most important of all” the accomplishments of the Trump administration, drawing loud applause and cheers from the crowd. “We did that, Iowa,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud to have been a small part of an administration that did just that.”
The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual spring fundraiser marks the unofficial start of the state’s 2024 caucus campaign.