Newsfront
Pro-Lifers Lose Patience as Abortions Surge
H
Frustration among social conservatives could hurt GOP in midterms. BY DAVID A. PATTEN
illary clinton had just delivered a well-practiced monologue supporting Planned Parenthood and
late-term abortion in 2016’s fi nal debate, when Donald J. Trump served up the bombshell that won him the support of countless social conservatives. “With what Hillary is saying,”
Trump replied, “in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother, just prior to the birth of the baby. “Now, you can say that that’s OK,”
Trump declared, “and Hillary can say that that’s OK. But that’s not OK with me.”
Flash-forward to today, however,
and there are growing indications that with the midterms fast-approaching, Trump’s powerful social-conservative coalition is deeply frustrated, and pos- sibly even embittered, by the series of setbacks the pro-life community has endured. Among them: More abortions are occur-
ring now than before Trump’s conservative Supreme Court appointees tossed out Roe v. Wade — over 1.1 million abor- tions annually. Most of those abortions —
63% — have been executed via drugs freely available through telemedicine and regular mail. The Trump administra- tion has yet to challenge a
8 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2026
Department of Justice fi nding issued during the Biden administration that legalized the cross-state distribution of abortion drugs. In October 2025, in a move that provoked a strong backlash from anti-abortion groups, Trump’s Food and Drug Administration approved a low-cost, generic version of the mifepristone abortion pill. Offi cials downplayed its approval as a stan- dard legal formality.
LAWS UNDERMINED Although Trump calls himself “the most pro-life president in history,” pro-life leaders are no longer trying to mask their frustrations. “The current GOP strategy of leav-
ing this issue to the states clearly does not work,” said Marjorie Dannenfels- er, the infl uential president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a speech earlier this year. She went on to note, “Twenty pro-
life states can’t even enforce their laws because of mail-order abortion drugs.” Conservative icon Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the current situation “unprecedented.”
“You have Republican states that
are challenging a Republican admin- istration . . . because their laws are being undermined,” Perkins told The Wall Street Journal. “Pro-life voters are going to be wondering what’s going on when they head into the polls in November.” Perkins’ not-so-subtle suggestion
that social conservatives and pro-lifers might feel uninspired to head to the polls in November was seen by GOP strategists as a serious warning. House Republicans are already
clinging to a razor-thin, six-seat major- ity in the House, and the party whose leader occupies the Oval Offi ce typi- cally loses ground in the midterms. The fact that Trump’s approval
rating is currently languishing below 40% raises concerns that Republicans are at risk for what then-President Barack Obama in 2010 termed “a shel- lacking.”
STAY FOCUSED The pro-life community is quick to credit Trump and Republicans for delivering the Supreme Court’s solid conservative majority. That led to the high court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson rul- ing that overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the right-to- life issue back to the indi- vidual states. At the time, it seemed
like a historic victory for the pro-life movement. Newsmax TV commen-
tator Tom Borelli says his fellow pro-lifers need to stay focused on the big picture. “Trump is right. He’s done the most of any president
MARCH/ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES / TRUMP/NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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