Trump Reprimands Pro-lifers for Losing Midterms—Pro-life Strategist Says Trump Right…and Wrong

Was Trump right to reprimand pro-lifers for losing the midterms?

Trump using social media said, “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms…. It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again….”

One pro-life strategist recognized and warned in August that the silence of Republicans, refusing to talk about the abortion issue, would be deadly. That pro-life strategist who warned of conservative midterm failure, Rev. Jim Harden, says Trump is both right and wrong. He was right that the pro-life movement seemingly disappeared after the overturning of Roe. In a press release at the time, Rev. Harden said, “Judging by the relative dearth of discussion about anything pro-life in conservative election bids, it seems the SCOTUS reversal of Roe may have lulled conservatives to sleep.” Regarding Trump’s statement, Rev. Harden says, “It is like the reversal of Roe caught pro-lifers flatfooted. Even today, pro-life organizations are retooling for the new post-Roe reality that has overtaken them seemingly by surprise.”

Rev. Harden believes Trump is right about another thing too: the ‘abortion issue’ was mishandled by Republicans. But he contends Trump is wrong about how it was mishandled. “It wasn’t that candidates lost because they stood firm on protecting all life equally, including the cases of rape, etc. I was one of the lone voices saying that, which Sean Hannity and I discussed in August [minute 9:30]. Most of the Republican candidates who lost the midterms stopped talking about abortion after the primaries. In the August press release about the midterms, Rev. Harden said, “The upshot is that pro-life candidates need to start talking about abortion and that it is the role of government to protect all citizens equally, especially the most vulnerable among us—preborn boys and girls. If not, history may prove the overturning of Roe to be the worst thing that ever happened to the pro-life cause.” 

To President Trump, Rev. Harden says, “The red wave died on the beach not because Republicans were too pro-life but because Republicans were too cowardly, refusing to talk about abortion at all, hiding behind inflation and crime. A closer look at which Republicans actually won reveals that being pro-life is a winning political strategy. Morality always trumps money. Pro-abortion politicians in charge of the Democrat party figured that out. And now the 2024 election may seal the fate of conservative pro-lifers and preborn boys and girls in America forever.”