The national GOP is gaslighting pro-lifers
Abortion was never a states' rights issue. It is a human rights issue that must be addressed nationally.
Donald Trump and his fans are openly lying about the pro-life movement and the Republican Party's historic stance on abortion. Trump and his fans are claiming that "everybody" wanted the federal government to get out of the abortion issue and return the issue to the states. This is not only a lie, but an easily debunkable lie.
Every Republican Party platform from 1984 through 2016 called for a Human Life Amendment to the US Constitution. Republicans recognized for decades that the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law should apply to unborn babies. Now, J.D. Vance is openly saying that Trump would veto a national abortion ban, directly contradicting decades of Republican orthodoxy on the issue.
Trump was spooked by Republican losses in key races in 2022, and decided that Republicans needed to moderate on abortion in order to win. It is one thing to take that position, and even a moderated Republican Party will be far better for protecting life than a Kamala Harris administration would be. It is quite another thing to openly lie about the end goal of the pro-life movement generally and the Republican Party specifically. How can pro-life voters trust someone who lies so brazenly?
The best comparison is slavery. Abolitionists in the North did not want chattel slavery to be a states' rights issue, even though they did not have slavery above the Mason-Dixon Line. They wanted slavery abolished as a great moral evil. Not only is the same true of abortion, it is more important to have a national ban. If you were in a "free state" in 1850, there was no slavery. But if you are in a "life state" in 2024, women can easily travel across state lines to have their babies killed. In some cases, wicked governments (like here in Bloomington) will pay for that travel. An abortion ban in Indiana only provides marginal protections for babies that can be murdered in Illinois.
As wicked as it is to abandon babies to be slaughtered in death states, openly lying about it and gaslighting pro-life voters makes it even worse. The Republican Party and pro-live voters both deserve better. Hopefully in 2028, Republicans can nominate someone who did not spend most of his life as a New York City liberal.