Two things can give him the confidence that it is not only possible, but wise, to limit abortion as president.
Two things can give him the confidence that it is not only possible, but wise, to limit abortion as president.
D onald Trump has done what many people thought impossible, winning back the presidency four years after losing it. He owes his victory in no small measure to Catholic voters. In 2020, we backed him by the slimmest of margins, with Trump winning 50 percent of Catholics to Joe Biden’s 49 percent. Yet in 2024, Trump beat Kamala Harris by a ten-point margin among Catholics, making major gains among both whites and Hispanics. The question now is: What do Catholics want Donald Trump to do?
The answer is another seemingly impossible task.
Catholic voters overwhelmingly want to protect pregnant mothers and their unborn children by limiting abortion to the greatest extent possible. Yet that appears politically harder than it was four years ago. In his first term, Trump took so many pro-life actions, he rightly called himself “the most pro-life president” in American history. But today, as he prepares to begin his second term, he’s promised to be “great” for “reproductive rights.” His running mate, J. D. Vance, has said that Trump will veto any abortion ban that comes to his desk.
To be sure, Trump is reacting to what appears to be political reality. He’s tied at the hip to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, since he appointed three of the justices who struck down Roe’s grotesque system of nationwide abortion on demand. That decision has motivated many voters who, unfortunately, want essentially no limits on abortion. Trump is surely wary of alienating people with more pro-life actions, fearing an ongoing backlash that stifles his agenda and sparks Republican defeat in the 2026 midterms.
And yet, political reality isn’t what many people think, likely including Trump himself. Specifically, two things should give him the confidence that advancing the pro-life cause is not only possible, but wise.
First, abortion wasn’t the political millstone in the 2024 election that many people feared. While it certainly motivated a large share of voters, millions of people who supported abortion also cast their ballots for Trump. The issue is more complex than abortion advocates would have us believe, and as polling still shows, a majority of Americans support limits on abortion. As such, Trump can be confident that moving in a pro-life direction won’t alienate nearly as many people as originally feared.
Second, abortion is going to be a constant Democratic attack against Trump no matter what, which actually gives him cover to pass pro-life policies. Think of it this way: If Trump does nothing to limit abortion, activists and their media allies will still loudly claim that he’s doing everything he can to roll it back. But they’ll say the same thing if he takes steps to protect life. If the attacks won’t change, why not earn them? It would have the added benefit of demonstrating to Trump’s coalition, especially Catholics, that he’s serious about showing the moral leadership we expect.
On that note, this is also an opportunity for J. D. Vance to provide that leadership. As a Catholic, he knows the church’s crystal-clear teaching on abortion, as well as the pro-life fervor that drives so many of his fellow believers to the ballot box. The next vice president needs to continually remind the next president that supporting life is politically smart, to say nothing of morally right.
At the practical level, Trump would be wise to champion the pro-life cause from the start of his administration. That means reinstating bans on federal funding for abortion overseas, protecting taxpayers from ever funding abortions, expanding conscience protections for health-care providers, and more. But it also means announcing support for laws such as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and, yes, calling for a 15-week ban, which Trump has hinted at in the past. While such laws are unlikely to advance in a closely divided Congress, presidential backing is essential to building the public support that can pave the way for their eventual passage.
This is the moral and political leadership that Catholic voters expect. We helped deliver Trump a seemingly impossible victory. And while many in the political class may think that protecting life is still impossible, we know the truth: With God, all things are possible.