Tomorrow, a group of pro-life leaders will meet with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in New York, in hopes of quelling concerns about his positions on abortion.
Among those attending the meeting will be former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins, and Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis.
The group will not be issuing joint statements or endorsements, but hope it will be an opportunity for both Trump to reassure skeptical pro-lifers, and for pro-lifers to get a stronger commitment out of the candidate.
“After seven long years of pro-abortion policies and hundreds of millions of our tax dollars poured into Planned Parenthood’s coffers, it is critical for Mr. Trump to understand the positive impact a pro-life president can make to save lives,” Gonidakis said, expressing confidence that the meeting “will go a long way in ensuring that we” get “Election 2016 right.”
Hawkins has also discussed the meeting as potentially “our only opportunity to sit with the potential leader of the free world and impress upon him the importance of sticking to his promises in helping us to end abortion and educate him on how to talk about our ‘issue’ in a loving and compassionate, yet effective way.”
Trump says he is pro-life and has encouraged some in the movement by hiring pro-life John Marshburn as his policy director and releasing a list of originalists he would appoint to the Supreme Court.
However, many have questioned his credibility on the subject, as he supported partial-birth abortion in 1999, has floated potential judicial nominees with mixed records on abortions, repeatedly praised Planned Parenthood during the campaign, and has displayed unfamiliarity with pro-life thought on topics, such as punishing abortionists rather than women for abortions.
The other candidates, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, are pro-abortion.
