The latest step in a long evolution

President Trump at a live broadcast from the Rose Garden / New York Times

If anyone were in doubt about where Donald Trump stood on abortion, his speech to the annual March for Life in Washington DC on Friday will settle the matter. Speaking by video hook-up to a crowd of tens of thousands, the President said “under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence and that is the right to life”.

“Today, we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves regardless of disability, gender, appearance, or ethnicity,” President Trump said. He also proclaimed January 22, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day.

Mr Trump’s position on abortion has evolved over the years. In a 1991 interview with NBC News, he declared, “I'm very pro-choice“. But, he added, perhaps foreshadowing his volte face on the topic, “I hate the concept of abortion, I hate it, I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But I still just believe in choice.”

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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