Trump meets with anti-abortion group amid pushback over campaign stance

Former President Donald Trump on Monday met with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group that had criticized his stance on national abortion measures.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung in April had told the Washington Post that the former president "believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level." SBA in response called the state by state approach "a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold. Life is a matter of human rights, not states’ rights."

During the Monday meeting between Trump, SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and evangelical leader Tony Perkins, the former president asserted his opposition to abortion on demand and taxpayer funding for the procedure, according to The Hill.

"President Trump believes such a position is unworthy of a great nation and believes the American people will rebel against such a radical position that aligns us with China and North Korea," Dannenfelser said after their discussions. She further pointed to his opposition to late-term abortions, but noted his stance "that any federal legislation protecting these children would need to include the exceptions for life of the mother and in cases of rape and incest."

The Supreme Court last year overturned the constitutional right to an abortion established in the Roe v. Wade decision. Three of the votes in favor of the decision came from Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom Trump nominated to the top bench.

That decision did not directly address a federal or state-by-state approach to regulating abortion, but merely stated that "[t]he Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives."

Since the initial blowback from anti-abortion groups, Trump has touted his record on abortion, heavily emphasizing the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that made any bans on the procedure possible. 

"Those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life. Nobody thought it was going to happen," he said at a rally in late April. "They thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for exactly that period of time, 50 years."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.