Pro-lifers are used to Republican politicians stabbing us in the back. Donald Trump has stabbed us in the front.
It is not an improvement.
Less than two years after the generational victory of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, the pro-life movement is facing generational catastrophe. The crisis is not that we have lost a series of ballot initiates to the pro-abortion side (bad as those losses are), but that the Republican presidential nominee is openly abandoning and sabotaging the pro-life cause. Rather than cashing out after their unexpected wins at the Trump political casino, pro-life Republicans largely doubled-down and backed him for 2024. Now, pro-lifers might lose the Republican Party.
Trump sees being pro-life as a political liability. He therefore wants to assuage the concerns of pro-abortion swing voters—while also keeping pro-lifers in his camp by pointing to the pro-abortion extremism of Joe Biden and the Democrats. There may be some political cunning in this, as illustrated by my EPPC colleague Henry Olsen’s sobering analysis of what it will take for pro-lifers to win in Florida’s upcoming referendum on abortion. Olsen, a shrewd political observer, describes a distressingly pro-abortion public.
But Trump’s assessment of pro-life policy as a political liability may also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leadership matters. Trump and his apologists in conservative media presume that the public is static and incapable of persuasion. But we know that this isn’t true, and that even many voters who are squishy on abortion are willing to support pro-life politicians. Were such politicians leading the GOP today and making the pro-life case, matters might look very different. But it’s Trump’s party now, and he not only has little personal pro-life conviction, he has also found the pro-life cause a convenient scapegoat after the failures of his MAGA candidates turned an expected 2022 red wave into a pink ripple.
The truth is that Trump is a far greater drag on Republican fortunes than opposition to abortion. And, despite Trump’s cynical blame-shifting, it remains the case that presidents and presidential candidates can significantly reshape public opinion. Indeed, Trump’s many devoted fans are particularly inclined to reshape their opinions to match his. These voters are more tribal than principled, but instead of guiding them toward truth, Trump is encouraging their worst impulses and pushing them to be more hostile to protecting human life in the womb.
Many Republican politicians are following Trump’s lead and undercutting those who still champion the unborn. This is not new, as demonstrated by Trump denouncing Florida’s heartbeat bill last year, but such betrayals are increasing as we head into the 2024 elections. MAGA is just as eager to avoid doing anything substantive on abortion as the old GOP establishment was. As Ross Douthat put it:
Trump is a fine post-Roe leader for a GOP that just wants to reassure swing voters that the party doesn’t care enough about the issue to legislate nationally. OTOH [on the other hand] he’s a terrible leader for a GOP that aspires to ever persuade anyone, win any referenda, or legislate responsibly.
The pro-life movement will have to make hard choices as it prudentially navigates the years ahead, but that is not what Trump and his imitators (e.g. failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and current Senate candidate Kari Lake) are doing. They aren’t trying to find the optimal tactics in the struggle against abortion; they just want to stop having to address abortion as a political issue. Which is to say that they want to surrender.
They want to give up because they do not actually believe in the pro-life cause, and therefore have no interest in using their influence to persuade people toward it. In contrast, though pro-lifers know that we will sometimes have to make painful prudential compromises, we will not give up on persuasion, because we believe the pro-life cause to be right and righteous, rooted in love and human solidarity. It is beautiful and noble, especially when set in contrast to the bloodshed of abortion, which violently destroys the primeval human relationships of mother, father, and child.
The case for abortion presumes that men and women’s interests are opposed and that they cannot rely on each other, and that children are burdens. Abortion seeks freedom from obligation and commitment, from the mutual interdependence that is intrinsic to human nature and flourishing. Abortion presumes that what matters is getting yours—sexually, financially, socially—while the getting is good.
This is why Donald Trump is utterly unfit to persuade anyone to the pro-life cause. Trump may be an avatar for many things, but unselfish love and compassion for the weak and vulnerable is not among them. As President, Trump can appoint judges and have his officials enact policies, but whether in office or on the campaign trail he is incapable of sincerely articulating, let alone exemplifying, the restraint, self-sacrifice, kindness, and love that are the basis of the pro-life cause.
This leaves pro-lifers in a difficult position, as both another Biden term and another Trump term might devastate pro-life efforts—Biden by advancing radically pro-abortion policies and tipping the balance of the federal judiciary back toward pro-abortion jurisprudence, Trump by turning the Republican Party decisively against any meaningful steps to protect human life in the womb.
There are hard choices to make, and hard lessons to learn, especially for those who had placed far too much trust in an alliance with a wicked old man.
But amidst the hardship and political turbulence, there is still hope. Whether popular or not, the fight to protect innocent human life is a righteous one, and our ultimate reliance is in a God who can change hearts and minds and raise up leaders even in the darkest of days.
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Trump is not the issue.
The issue is a “pro-life” movement that seeks to take an incremental approach to fighting abortion.
What they don’t realize is that when you agree to allow the killing of certain children under specific circumstances — any children at all — you give up the right to object to any child killings.
If they’re not all wrong, then none are wrong.
The “pro-life” movement is accepting the left’s characterization of the issue and trying to appear “moderate” rather than “extreme”.
But being “moderate” on abortion means that you are okay with killing *some* children.
And if you think killing one child is okay, then you have no moral basis on which to object to killing all the children.
You have lost the argument.
“And if you think killing one child is okay, then you have no moral basis on which to object to killing all the children.”
True, which is why the atheist materialist over population alarmist and global warming globalist continue to promote their false narrative as a means to justify their denial of The Sanctity of innocent human life from the moment of conception, when we are Created in The Image and Likeness of God, equal in Dignity, while being complementary as a beloved son or daughter, Willed by God, worthy of Redemption, Called to live in Loving relationships, in communion with The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided (Devoted Completely to Perfect Life-affirming and Life sustaining Perfect Love without division) Blessed Trinity.
“They want to give up because they do not actually believe in the pro-life cause, and therefore have no interest in using their influence to persuade people toward it.”
It is for them, a political issue, as they claimed that protecting our inherent Right to Life is a State’s Right issue and not a human’s Right issue because they believe our inherent unalienable Right to Life is alienable as long as one can deny the personhood of a beloved son or daughter residing in their mother’s womb, and thus render onto Caesar or themselves, what belongs to God, The Author of Love, of Life, and of Marriage, and thus The Author of our inherent unalienable Right to Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness.
One can know through both Faith and reason, when you compromise God’s Truth, you will always end with error.
Being moderate on abortion, is being moderate on protecting our inherent unalienable Right to Life, the securing and protection upon which securing and protecting our inherent unalienable Right to Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness depends on every point of Time and Space in God’s Created Universe.
Where in The Constitution does it state that protecting our inherent, unalienable Right to Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness is not binding in both State and Constitutional Law?
the intentional destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter residing in their mother’s womb, which is never a “victimless “ crime , and in fact, establishes “a risk of harm”, to all future generations, stands in direct conflict with both The Spirit Of The Law and The Spirit Of The Constitution in regards to first and foremost, securing our inherent Right to Life, upon which “forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general Welfare, and securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, depends in every State of The United States Of America.
Woe to us!
Looky here. We have yet another article dripping in TDS that gets Trump entirely wrong. If you are not going to take the time to truly understand another person, you shouldn’t talk about him. You only succeed in making it abundantly clear that you are jealous of Trump. We don’t need any more small minded men in this world.
Compelling rebuttal to what Dr. Blake is arguing… oh wait, you didn’t actually respond to any of his points. Continue typing out MAGA catchphrases.
The idea that blasting Trump’s hypocrisy means that you are endorsing Biden is nonsense. It’s called living within the truth.
Since you despise MAGA, vote for Biden to prove your Catholic credentials.
Or perhaps Jesus is bigger and more profound than whatever fits into the American political duopoly in 2024.
Absolutely.
Nope! We abhor abortion. What loving and holy woman would want to kill her child in the womb? All life is sacred, EVEN the mother’s.
How does this get Trump wrong? Your immediate recourse to ad hominem attacks (he envies Trump) is very Trumpian. How about arguing with facts and reason?
Well, Dr. Blake, I guess there’s only one thing left to do, right? Vote for Biden. Is that the point of your “I finally have a reason to crusade against Orange Man” piece? Your anti-Trump credentials are intact. Congratulations! Hold it high for all your academic colleagues and Northern Virginia neighbors to see. I am sure they will smile approvingly. Now you can cast your ballot for Biden with a satisfied conscience.
This is a total ad hominem argument with no substance at all. There is always the option to vote for neither. No pro-life person would ever vote for Biden, so stop manufacturing your straw men. Look at today’s first reading – we are called to obey God rather than men. Trump is the one who sold out. Like all politicians he has to earn it. He chose to dump his pro-life right to bring over some previous Biden voters, let him live with it and let his Trump-is-savior followers stop whining because they can’t coronate him without an election.
First of all, my comment is not an argument; therefore, it cannot be an ad hominem argument. It is a comment. Your comment might be that pro-life people should vote for neither Trump nor Biden. That’s a reasonable position. One could, as I have held for many years, suggest that a political solution to abortion that is acceptable to pro-lifers such as myself, has become impossible. The Church should have used its considerable resources over the past 50 years to persuade hearts and minds to cherish life rather than lobbying for laws. In the meantime, the church, a plurality of its bishops and a huge chunk of Catholic thinkers have become, in effect, pro-choice because they hate Trump. To wit, not one of them stood with him, offered support or gratitude for his pro-life stance in his first administration. They demonstrated that it doesn’t pay to be pro-life. They created the circumstances in which hard political choices are made, and now they use it as a bludgeon against Trump. If one doesn’t support pro-life candidates, don’t be surprised (or faux disgusted) when candidates choose to jettison pro-life concerns. Folks like Dr. Blake seem to want a pro-life candidate whom the in-crowd approves. That candidate does NOT exist – because of the in-crowd, not because of the candidates. So, despite all the pro-life rhetoric, these folks are espousing defeat of the pro-life cause, and they need to face that fact.
I agree! Vote for neither of them!
Trump will betray everyone in the end. Any of us who know him know that much. I can count on one hand the leaders I’ve worked with that did betray life at least a little. But Trump is RINO-in-chief.
God is the Lord of Life, and abortion is the Devil’s sacrament. It has been, and always will be, a Hell of a fight. Over the decades, I witnessed miraculous victories and scandalous betrayals. The worst wounds were always inflicted by those closest, especially Catholics. Biden is their stooge-in-chief. Every time pro-life won something, the counteroffensive was swift. The bigger the victory, the bigger the evil response against life. When a battle won went national, even spilling over into international, it was as if the Eye of Sauron had turned upon us. Truly.
Jesus Christ is Lord and in the end all shall be well. Happy Easter!
The devil is the author of all discouragement. We seem to be hearing a great deal of that these days & you have to wonder who benefits?
Agreed. Trump should not have done the Devil’s work to discourage the pro-life movement.
I was thinking also about discouragement and voting. If we read comments that discourage us from voting then you wonder who that would benefit in the end?
Agreed again MrsCracker! We should all vote. It’s a civic duty, a privilege, a right that brings responsibility (St. Newman;)
Blake writes: “Trump sees being pro-life as a political liability.”
Hypothetically, would it still be a “liability” if he were elected and not looking toward a followup term in the Oval Office? If the House and the Senate passed a national ban, would he be making different noises than he is now, as a near-sighted politician?
Might we be reminded of a recent predecessor in the White House? In the 2008 election year President Obama said “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman; I am not in favor of gay marriage.” This was a flat out lie according to his political advisor at the time, David Axelrod” (recounted by Thomas McArdle, “Is Al Smith Dinner Still Worthwhile,” National Catholic Register, October 30, 2016).
It might be that the Arizona decision, legally correct as it is, has rendered protection of the unborn too much of a political lightning rod this year. Once in office, another flip-flop need not appeal to “evolution,” but instead just another day in politics as usual.
But, then, there’s the successful Republican president, Ronald Reagan, who said instead while campaigning in the early 1980s: “stay the course.” And, the still earlier Democratic candidate in 1968, Hubert Humphrey, who famously said: “never give up, never give in…”
So, today how are things, really? On this question, we have bottom-feeder (!) Billy Boy Clinton: “it all depends on what the meaning of is, is.” But, also, from scorched-earth Scarlet O’Hare, whose fickle end game (!) resembled that of so many calculating politicians, this: “tomorrow is another day.”
Trump’s comments are actually in line with the Dobbs Decision. I don’t think his comments will cost him votes. What are religious right types going to do? Vote for Biden?
No – they are going to follow their God given conscience like everyone else? Some may vote for Trump still and some may not, but no pro-life person will vote for Biden.
Most pro-life people I know vote for Democrats because their policies lead to more women having children. 1/3 of the party os pro-life.
I agree Will. Seriously, voting for Biden or staying home on election day’s the answer?
Prolife voters need to take some responsibility for what happens in their own states. It’s on us now. Dobbs made it possible for us to enact human rights reform in our communities. Before that, it was impossible to have prolife laws. Every time we did that, a federal court would strike it down citing Roe.
This is a much more complex situation than you represent. In Massachusetts Dobbs did nothing because the state already passed laws which thumbed their nose at the Supreme Court. I could register under five (voting) names and still not help Trump win in MA where we can now expect zero help from him on the federal level. There are two additional bills in state committee right now – one to remove parents from being informed if their minor children seek an abortion (great idea so parents can wonder why they are driving their fourteen year olds to the ER due to an abortion pill) and another to harass pregnancy resource centers with big fines (with some extra spice about not providing care to children who survive the abortion). “Mr. Trump will you sign a law protecting parents’ rights and the protection of pregnancy resource centers?” “No, its the will of the people.” “President Trump will you sign a bill protecting babies born alive?” “No, its now all up to the states.” Coward! A few dozen of us just met with the committee members of these MA state bills – we take responsibility and have been all along. If the president of the United States will not act on national matters of serious human rights, when states have representatives to enact laws at the federal level which concern the common good, then our republic is dead, and he just killed it.
Inigo,
All I can say is that Dobbs completely rid our own state of legally committed feticides. Which I’m eternally grateful for.
It’s a terrible shame that’s not the case for every US state but I pray one day it will be. Reforms don’t happen overnight. Especially after nearly half a century of open season on the unborn.
It’s unlikely that legal abortion has been removed from your state, though the clinics may have closed. No state can stop the abortion medication from reaching women and not a single state will charge a women who obtains an elective abortion regardless of what the state law say.
As always, ma’am, your words are brief, but freighted with good sense and clear phrasing. Thank you.
“If I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do that. If I could save the Union by freeing only some of them, I would do that. If I could save the Union by freeing none, I would do that.” – Abraham Lincoln, early in the Civil War. Dobbs was a Missouri Compromise of sorts, leaving it to the States. Attempts at nationally banning it are doomed to failure. I surprised that someone with so many letters after his name didn’t figure that out before Trump did.
Living in MI after our decades of efforts were slaughtered with Prop 3, it’s hard to give much positive advice. The other side can do and say pretty much what they want, from ballot initiative language to NPR playing the sounds of a MI abortion on their national radio program. Anytime the issue comes up, like it just did in AZ, the big media jump on the “denial of medical and/or reproductive care” bandwagon. Meanwhile, how long are many waiting for regular medical care appointments, if you can even find a doctor or equivalent? A man in our church had an appointment with a doctor, showed up at 9 or so and they told him, “oh, he quit.”
“In contrast, though pro-lifers know that we will sometimes have to make painful prudential compromises…” Doctor Blake, please do not confuse prudence with practicality. Prudence is the moral virtue that guides one to attain the good and avoid evil, and so it is never “prudential” to vote for a pro-abortion president since abortion is intrinsically evil, though some may say it is “practical” when considering the alternative. Nor is the issue one of contrast, which is another albatross around the pro-life neck (contrasts lead to compromises which if in themselves led to gains would be excellent, but too often they lead to backtracking as you noted above in your mentioning Trump contrasting himself with Biden). Trump has dumped marriage, extrauterine children, and now the unborn. Can he be trusted to put forth strong judicial nominees now unless these also protect his indiscretions? How can he be trusted on religious freedom, when he recently referred to pro-life people as those with an agenda? In the end, pro-life Catholics need to trust in God and in each other and work daily in the culture. This full-in trusting to politics was never a bright idea.
I don’t understand that point of this column. What does Dr. Blake want the American voters who are pro-life to do–vote for a third-party candidate who doesn’t stand a chance of winning? Yes, our consciences will be “clean”, but in all likelihood, Pres. Biden will be re-elected with the result that not only will the pro-abortion forces gain great traction (possibly even being able to close down all pro-life pregnancy care centers and perhaps even churches that offer help to women during crisis pregnancies), but also continuing to promote the sickening transgender movement with the very real possibility of seeing our children removed from our homes if we appear to be “anti-trans” by giving our boys Tonka trucks instead of dolls, and our girls Barbies instead of baseballs.
We have to face the facts and be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves”. The incredibly wealthy Democratic Party currently controls and/or heavily-influences the news (journalism) and social media, the public education system at all levels from day-care/pre-school through college/university, the huge and profitable entertainment industry, many of the Protestant mainline churches, many of the charitable organizations (e.g., Susan Komen for the Cure), and most science funding (universities, private organizations).
A study by NBC demonstrated that many young teenagers are using their I-phones up to 14 hours a day–which means they are constantly bombarded with pro-choice, pro-trans propaganda produced by the Democratic Party. And churches, according to many studies by both religious and secular organizations, are draining members and friends.
I think that in these times, we need to set aside any fantasies that voting for a third-party candidate is the “righteous” thing to do. Do we want to assuage our individual consciences (as we are being arrested or having our children taken away from us or denied certain rights or jobs just for being Christians), or do we want to try to set our nation on a “less-evil” track than the vast evil that Democrats are planning for us?
We need to vote with our brains. Pres. Trump indeed has many objectionable traits-but compared to the Democrats who are prepared to destroy our country with blatantly evil and sinful policies that they are calling “good,” Pres. Trump is the better choice.
I think it would make sense to remember that Pres. Trump’s children are admirable in their good behavior and work ethic, and that Melania Trump actually took her son AWAY from Washington, D.C. and raised him in very private quarters and school–and the results are obvious. Barron Trump seems to be a well-balanced, polite, and intelligent young man who offered his father his arm during a recent funeral–a very touching gesture from the son of a man that I hope will be elected over Pres. Biden.
A man’s children can be a good indicator of what the man is really like. Pres. Trump is a shrewd and skilled businessman who knows how to make a deal. He has appointed three Supreme Court justices who finally took down the heinous Roe. v. Wade–and this is probably what lost him the election, as the Democratic Party must have met in backrooms and cooly plotted to destroy his Presidency and any remnants of it. We need to use our brains here, and counter their strategy with one of our own by electing a man who has proven to be a friend to the unborn and to families and will assumedly continue to be a friend when he is elected.
Oh, and by the way, Pres. Biden and the First Lady should be denied Holy Communion for their rabid support of abortion rights and the transgender movement. But they are not–what’s going on with our Catholic churches in the U.S. who continue to offer the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus to people who have the blood of many aborted children on their hands?!
“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” Jerry Garcia
Give me strength. Choosing to quote Jerry Garcia is itself a choice of grave evil. What nonsense.
Choosing damage control is better than ensuring further decay.
When you as a “pro-life” person assent to a single child murder, you’ve undermined your own moral position.
It’s a fatal blunder.
You cannot be “pro-life” on an incremental basis.
It’s like marital fidelity. You either are or you aren’t.
Which is why I say the “pro-life” movement is dead.
Satan’s left wins again.
And humanity is finished.
Vote Democratic.
You’re pointing fingers at Trump when at this very moment, Catholic Bidens and Catholic Pelosis are doing everything in their power to kill potential next generation Catholics. How can these lifelong baptized, educated and card carrying Catholics so adamantly encourage this atrocity? Bad theology is a cruel taskmaster for not only the recipient but to all those around them.
I’m not certain if the author is anti Trump or just saying Trump may not be the answer he wanted. Since government is the problem, I don’t know why we look to them to be the solution. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Catholic clergy would say something, anything, on this issue. Letting our “Catholic “ president be the leader on this subject. God has successfully been removed from our culture. Killing babies is now healthcare. Our elites have successfully “ transformed” our country. The “leaders” in the Catholic Church are silent.
For goodness sakes, even if voting for Trump is simply for cultural damage control it’s still the correct thing to do if you care about the kind of world your children & grandchildren will inherit.
Is an elderly gentleman who routinely wears more makeup than a drag queen likely to control cultural damage?
Well, if a candidate wearing makeup for the cameras can hold back the tide of cultural decay for four more years until we elect someone else, God bless them.
The 2020 election was the year of the “hold your nose and cast your vote but VOTE election”
This year, if everything goes as it looks it will go, is chapter 2 of that. Donald Trump is no bargain, but would you rather have him for president or would you prefer what we have – a president in obvious cognitive decline who claims to be ‘Catholic’ but who is beyond doubt the most pro-abortion president in our history, and who has taken PUBLIC positions in opposition to many of our other beliefs – start with same-sex ‘marriage’.
Voting is not only a right, it’s a responsibility, so here we go again in a little under 7 months – hold your nose and vote, but VOTE.
This is why theorists can’t do politics and politicians don’t do theory. The first rule of politics in a democracy is GET ELECTED. There is no second rule. Everything else is subordinate, no matter how important it is. The road to lack of power in this world is paved with people who were so definitive and self-righteous that they were unacceptable to all but a few zealots, going all the way back to the original Not-the-King-of-This-World. The question is not what a candidate will do to get elected, but what that candidate will do, encourage and allow after they get elected.
Yes, Michael. Nothing good or bad can happen without first getting a candidate elected. The GOP, especially sincerely prolife GOP- God bless them, always seem to ignore this principle. We spend so much time bickering over a candidate’s lack of perfections that we lose the election & an opportunity to effect change.
So, another CWR article by an author with Trump Derangement Syndrome – Altieri yesterday, Weigel at times before that.
Was it really less than two years ago that all the pro-life groups were praising Trump for appointing Pro-Life Judges, and thus getting the Dobbs decision which returned the abortion decision to the states. I belong to a Weekly pro-life prayer group and pray once a week in front of a local abortion center. I mention this only to show my pro-life credentials, but I know many people who do much more.
I recall only a couple of months ago that many pro-life organizations in this country were saying that any candidate who wanted their endorsement had to be in favor of a 15-week limit on abortions. What is the world is so great about that? Ninety Five percent of abortions are performed before that date.
And, for this author to use the phrase ” wicked old man” for Trump, after what Biden has done for the past three plus years is beyond the pale.
If we want to be critical of a lack of full-blown pro-life statements and actions let us look within our Church, at our clergy, high and low. We have bishops and Cardinals saying giving the Eucharist to militantly pro-death politicians (Biden, Pelosi, etc.) is something they will continue to do. So, since we know that we should not receive the Eucharist unworthily, they must believe that being militantly pro-death is not all that seriously immoral.
Our Pope strongly castigated Trump for wanting to build a wall to protect our border, but met with Biden, and from reports, not denied by the Vatican, said that he was doing fine.
We now have the Life issue of IVF, and the destruction of multiple embryos, the earliest stage of human life. One of our historical pro-life senators said that all 100 senators were in favor of IVF and would vote accordingly. I looked up the USCCB website to see what they had to say about this. The site listed a letter to congress saying the bishops do not “condone” this. What a weak condemnation! The bishops do not condone many things, many of which are not even immoral. If bishops and pastors do not speak out strongly on these issues, we are going to have many Catholics voting against Life. When my state, following Dobbs, had a pro-life constitutional amendment on the ballot, it was voted down. Exit polls showed that a higher percentage of evangelical protestants voted pro-life than Catholics.
I, and others, have tried to get specific pro-life statements in our parish bulletin – public knowledge information such as items from the democrat platform saying they were in favor of killing the unborn, anytime, anyplace, for any reason, paid for by the government. We were denied – too political. We can just have rather bland statements that we should all be pro-life. Have we traded teaching moral truth in exchange for a federal tax exemption?
I would not consider voting for Trump if he said that he was just as much for abortion as Biden. But that is not the case. We are never going to have a Mother Theresa running for president. We have to deal with what we have, and what we currently have is two presidential candidates who both have moral stances that we may object to but are no way equivalent.
I appreciate all of the above comments, but I recall an old statement that I think may apply – ” We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Thank you Crusader.
“Wicked old man”, indeed. For goodness sakes.
🙁
It is not Trump derangement to see that he is a deeply immoral and dishonest man unworthy of the presidency, or that he cannot be trusted to do anything but what benefits himself. One cannot presume that he will pursue any good policy if in the end he thinks it won’t help him. Under those circumstances one can make a case for not voting for Trump or Biden.
Thank you for a great editorial on Donald Trump and his personal choices on abortion as a way to votes. I have never been persuaded to believe that Donald Trump is or was Pro-Life and never voted for him or any candidate that chooses a culture of death. It looks like I will be another under vote this November again but I will have a clean Soul.
What is even more disturbing are the comments that are some how still in support of Donald Trump. Well, all you good Catholics, remember voting for anyone who does not support life from conception to natural death is a SIN. We all need to pray about that and remember our soul come before any politics.
I am not going to follow Donald Trump or Joe Biden into Hell.
I may disagree by saying we can for a lesser of evils but if Trump gets a 15 week law, it will be in place forever with no hope of changing it. At least with Biden we’re still in the hunt but even that logic is almost unpalatable. As a dedicated pro-life conservative I’m sickened by both Biden and Trump, truth be known. Thanks for this.
It would do us well to remember constantly that in the realm of the American political game we are dealing with an animal that is not friendly to any authentic Roman Catholic value. Recall well Jack Kennedy’s public repentance for his Catholicism. And then, of course, presently we have weekly exhibitions of komic katholicism from the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is an abomination which receives no rebuke from the American episcopate, magnifying the abomination.
The election of a political figure in the United States, or any nation for that matter, is not a canonization – it is the pragmatic choice between the lesser of two evils. Mr. Trump is at best a nominal protestant. I expect nothing of him, but we are blessed that he has managed to wound the demonic force which was Roe vs. Wade and send this issue back to the states as is constitutionally required. Now we have fifty battles, but they are localized. We can be sure that Mr. Trump will indeed avoid further blood shed if we provide him adequate support.
The blame for the holocaust which is the American abortion industry lays with us. The Roman Catholic Church has failed to evangelize our nation, our world. Whatever inroads had been established during our two-thousand-year-old history are in the process of catastrophic collapse and at our own post-conciliar hands. This is our fault.
Let’s turn the critique of Trump back upon ourselves. Anyone worried about the upcoming presidential election had best turn their concern to the upcoming conclave in Rome. But for the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it is sure to be another cataclysm.
Christ is our Light.
How anyone could think the federal government has the authority to enact a “national” ban, is beyond me. Dobbs was a correct decision, and likely what Justice Scalia had in mind all along.
And let’s face it, DJT is the best we have ever gotten here, and may ever get for some time.
Nathaniel, keep up the good work. We need to keep the pressure on. I’m a veteran GOPer but Trump is bad on aboertion as presently construed. Biden is of a purer form of Satan’s will, sure. I don’t understand the attacks on your article, mostly accusations and insults without arguments, wholly unworthy of any Catholic but strangely predictable in today’s climate, by those who should be our allies. Trump Derangement Syndrome has its opposite: Trumpkins. But for being a follower of Jesus I’d be totally dispirited. Trump veers unwittingly into having done some genuine good while being completely unmoored. He’s the perfect modern, driven mainly by feelings and not knowing nearly as much as hew thinks he does. There will be no pro-life progress without calling him on this and once you get a 15-week abortion ban, 80-90 percent of all abortions will be “locled in” and go on unabated, and the law will be in place until God has had enough of the godless nation and Trump’s more stubborn apologists. Keep up the good work. Keep the heat on.
The GOP has always given the pro-life crowd lip service. The Church needs to take a different approach to minimize abortions. If we want women to believe that abortion is evil, we need to encourage them to join us in Church where they can hear the Word of God like we do. The man-made government in Washington DC is not part of God’s plan—the Catholic Church and the Word of God are the tools we need to use to change people’s hearts.
What an utterly nasty article. Most things I see written by extreme pro=lifers remind me of spoiled toddlers. They want the WHOLE loaf or they want NONE. Well, guess what?? So far for the most part they have gotten almost NONE, thanks to the election of democrats across the political spectrum for too many years,( with Catholic votes) from dog catcher on up. The guy with the power makes the rules. Thats the thing to keep in mind. Reality check: The country is NOT filled with like minded pro-lifers who want a 100% abortion ban. You may not like it, but thats the truth. That ship sailed about 50 years ago, and was truthfully leaning that way well before that. Is it better to make exceptions for rape or incest while banning later abortions? How many babies will be saved? Is is better to allow abortions up to 15 weeks but ban them in the 2nd and third trimester except to save the mother? How many babies will be saved? The reality is, this will only be done incrementally, because the polls show that MOST Americans come down on the side of exceptions for rape or incest. MOST Americans also dont like third trimester abortions, so there is room again to curtail the situation. Trump appointed conservative Supreme Court justices with the hope he could curtail an awful procedure. I personally think there is little hope of EVER achieving a total ban on abortion. The pro life movement is cutting off it’s nose to spite it’s face if they intend to bash Trump, who has been their best hope for decades, and what? Stay home? Vote Biden? Vote Kennedy, which is the same as voting Biden??. . In addition, pro Christian ideas like law and order, anti-drug laws , anti sex trafficking, etc, will go the way of the dodo if Biden or any democrat is elected in this next election.They simply dont care about fairness, Christian values or the rule of law. Isnt that obvious by the open borders, the crime wave unprosecuted by blue state Democrat DA’s, etc? Bashing Trump so that people stay home, or worse yet vote for Kennedy or Biden,because you didnt get everything you wanted on an abortion ban will, GUARANTEED, not save a SINGLE baby. Electing Trump almost certainly will. And, there are other issues people need to be concerned about in their lives as well. NO improvements to our current dangerous national situation will happen as long as Dems are in power.Abortion isnt our only issue as Christians, not by a long shot. There, I said it.
Yes, I don’t know what is being proposed here. Staying home on election day enables four more years of a destructive Democrat administration. That’s not going to be my choice.
Trump has the Republican nomination in his pocket. His comments are a pivot to the general election. As LJ said, most Americans do not want a total ban. They want exceptions, such as rape and incest. Trump understands this and has shifted to the general election to win over moderates and independents. This is politics.
The all or nothing attitude of many of the religious right, often results in nothing. Trump is a politician, not a theologian.
The article points out the problem with getting involved with politics in the first place. The only way to win the battle iof hearts and minds is by being Christians. Let’s devote our efforts to helping pregnant women to have healthy babies in safe and secure places before and after birth.
Casting a vote Jim doesn’t preclude acting like Christians & helping mothers in need. We can do all of those at the same time. Being overly invested in divisive political debates is something else.
There is no excuse whatsoever for voting for a candidate who is a flaming advocate of the mass murder of babies and the chemical and surgical mutilation of the genitalia of temporarily confused children, and whose border policies have made child sex trafficking a multi-billion dollar a year business. And then there are the hundreds of thousands of deaths from fentanyl trafficked across the border. Since voting for Biden is purchasing a one-way ticket to Hell, that leaves us with Trump, who did manage to get Roe v Wade overturned.
According to a recent poll reported in The Loop (Catholic Vote), 42 percent of Floridians will vote to make abortion a state constitutional right. Moreover, this amendment is so poorly drafted that such a vast reactive endorsement can only signal the horrific influence of such slogans as “my body, my choice.” Such shallow chants control the voters, not a reasoned reflection and acknowledgement of another person’s right and dependence on his or her mother to survive the womb.
One can hear the excuses now: “I am against abortion, but others may not believe as I do.” “The government should not be the arbitrators of this decision.” “We live in a democracy not a theocracy,” “I know someone who had very difficult circumstances,” as so forth.
Of course all of these impaired perspectives ignore the fact that abortion kills a unique, God created person. Furthermore, after decades of sex education and 65,000,000 abortions in the country alone over fifty years, it does not strike any of these liberal blinded that something is terribly amiss?
The future looks dim. Natural consequences have and will continue to follow these unnatural acts. For just one example: Tens of thousands of Chinese intruders at the border, mostly male. It was asked about twenty years ago, “Where will the disproportionate male Chinese population go, after girls were selected for abortion during the one-child policy?” Then there is the sexual identity confusion and same sex relations, as sexuality contorts into hellish, mostly brief physical expression.
Personally, I would like to be most optimistic, but this nation, once so blessed, is headed for interior collapse —but worse—with eternally dire ends for those who support abortion rights. Trump could win, and we would still lose.
Better start sharing and shouting a new four word Truth: Protect Wombs; Save souls!
LJ, your comments are the most realistic to appear in this decidedly interesting debate. Another writer pointed out the often only acceptable decision once one decides to participate in political reality through elections, that is, to choose “the lesser of two evils.” Is it better to surrender politically to evil by abstaining from voting on principle, or indeed to vote for the lesser evil in the belief that evil overall will be impeded by that decision? Some further consideration of moral theology fundamentals is warranted this election year, and on this forum, especially concerning formal and material participation, and since such enlightenment is unlikely to issue from those who should be teaching these matters forcefully, better to seek it on your/our own.
I too find the point of this article difficult to discern. But ultimately this next presidential election is not about Trump or Biden. It is about the American people and that is what concerns me the most.
Thank you, Crusader, James P. Nalley and mrscracker! If Christians (Catholic or otherwise) cannot see what is at stake in this election and the clear differences between Trump and Biden (or whoever the Democrat Machine puts on the ballot) they do not have much light. They have let their personal distaste and disagreements with Trump cloud their judgment. Look at the book of Judges for some examples of the people that God used to save Israel and bring them back (albeit, unfortunately, only temporarily). God has always had to use earthen vessels when working with humankind. But no single leader can really save the nation. The real problem then and now is the spiritual state of the people. And I agree with the comments the above named have made in pointing to the fact that the reasons, for the most part, our culture and politics is in the deplorable state that it is is that we the Church, yes, we Christians, have largely failed to do what Christ has asked of each of us in our personal lives and in our interactions with our families and our fellow man in our everyday lives. The leaders of the Church are included in that comment. We have made innumerable little compromises with the world as we have gone on in our lives and now we have arrived at this state of affairs. Personal and national repentance is the only thing that really can save the nation. That, for example, is the only thing that will stop abortion, sex trafficking, pornography, the transgender epidemic, drug addictions and a whole host of other evils going on in our culture. And, of course, if we really are serious about bringing Christian values back into the culture and political realm, we can expect to be accused of being Christian nationalists (Oh my!).
“The pro-life movement will have to make hard choices as it prudentially navigates the years ahead, but that is not what Trump and his imitators (e.g. failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and current Senate candidate Kari Lake) are doing. They aren’t trying to find the optimal tactics in the struggle against abortion; they just want to stop having to address abortion as a political issue. Which is to say that they want to surrender.”
Thank you, Dr. Blake, for your pro-life stance expressed here. However, Dr. Blake, unless explicitly stated, I am sure a candidate’s STRATEGIES’ MOTIVES cannot be JUDGED by we outsiders or armchair politicians. Black and white thinking isn’t possible, nor reality. Ever watch political debates? As our Nation has devolved morally, frequently the fewer Conservatives end up being backed into corners by the immoral majority, where legislative compromise has been the slow, painful process to make ANY headway. This fact I’ve known (as does Inigo), as a veteran campaigner and pro-life activist for two decades, and locally elected and re-elected town rep. in politically militant, lawless, illegal-alien-importing, anti-life MA. I commented in Dr. Chapp’s political article last week; the political landscape background will show how many strides DJT actually amazingly made. [And hell will freeze over before I vote for a “DemoncRat” (a name from a reader’s reply within the following article I recommend). I encourage all of you to find and support local Republicans, esp. by joining Republican town committees. It would greatly benefit those who have been discouraged hearing Dr. Blake’s announcement herein to read Dr. Chapp’s article.]:
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/04/02/a-broader-better-and-authentically-catholic-vision-of-politics
As Mrs. Cracker has rationally reminded us herein- yes, voting Catholics are taught to choose the “lesser of two evils”. I’m glad herein we’ve been reminded that DJTrump was supportive of pro-life politics. I’ll share:
1) was first POTUS to address the winter walkers in the March for Life in Wash., DC;
2) appointed (quite beleaguered Justices by liberal media & reps when candidates) Amy Coney-Barrett and Cavanaugh, whose moral compasses are solid;
3) And could be thanked (albeit indirectly) for the repeal of Roe v. Wade (-which I didn’t think was possible)!
“Hilary played the female card; Obama played the race card; and God played the Trump card”! (-author unknown to me; a nun told this joke to me)
Yes, I agree with Will, Mrs. S. Whitlock, Terrence, et. al., VOTE! And TRUMP is the better choice- (even if voters forget the outright bribery/treason, etc. the 2 Bidens haven’t YET been prosecuted for- although there are tomes of evidence in existence)!
Yes, agreeing with posts of brian and Scott C., I suggest frustrated Catholics write their local Bishops and Cardinals at USCCB, and demand they speak up about Democrats in office- of their apostasy- in American politics. (It’s a sin not to vocally correct sinners when we know of their errors, lest actually hypocrites, Novus Ordo Clergy. And withhold Holy Communion to same Democrats)!
Very good, strong riposte, ma’am. One caveat, please, if I may — while Trump may have been a “card” played in the fight for Dobbs, I’m thinking that the monumental legal intellect of Assoc. Justice Clarence Thomas was a mighty strong force in its ruling. His few public statements about Roe over the years suggest he has always seen its failings.
Thank you for your comments above, soljerblue😊 And I’ve also heard that Justice C. Thomas was instrumental if not key to R.v.W.’s repeal.
I should like in as civil a manner as possible to take strong issue with the author of this article. I regard my life, as an imperfect, struggling Christian and a blood foe of abortion, to be reason enough to speak. I’m in my eighties, with enough mistakes on record to create interesting odds on my chances in the Day of Judgement. I’m adopted, my oldest child, a daughter, is also adopted, and through her I’m blessed with two of the greatest grandchildren God and their mom could ever have given a parent. And yet, as a younger man and certainly knowing better, I impregnated a young woman whom I convinced to abort our unborn child so that I could – with an imagined “clear conscience” – end our relationship and pursue another woman who became my first wife. I opposed abortion then, too, but with some “options”, and I bought into the political lie of ‘safe, legal and rare.’ Yet I also respect and strongly defend our Constitution that created separation of powers and a government that supposedly rises from the People through the States to cover the Nation. That is what the Supreme Court did in Dobbs, the correct standard for the country, and the right one that Trump is standing by. Dr. Blake’s rant – call it what it is – is as extreme in its way as the no-restrictions demands of the abortion lobby. Dobbs puts the issue exactly where it belongs, with the people in their respective states to address the issue constitutionally as many have already done. Our pro-life warriors campaigned for fifty years to bring about Dobbs. If the path forward is ever to be a total ban in federal law, then results to date suggest it could one day happen. Yet angry rhetoric, even if deserved or justified, will not speed the process. Only reasoned persuasion, informed argument, determined effort will work. I despise the murder of generations of unborn children, and deep shame for my personal role. But we are in a moment – a single stage – in this fight for human life. The victory, when it comes, is not in our control and will not be on our schedule. And it’s highly unlikely (sarc alert) to be because of a single election.
Well said Scott Converse; however if abortion were criminalized as it should be, that would need leadership and service with integrity in public office and elsewhere in the social and medical worlds. What would priests say then?
Dobbs takes the pressure off the Federal level and allows those politicians to get off easier and swing with the times. Hence the recent proposal in the GOP to remove the pro-life platform. STILL NOBODY IS EXCOMMUNICATE.