Most people don’t like fighting about abortion, and so a running theme of our decades of debate has been the wish that it would end. On the day after Roe v. Wade came down, the New York Times reported that it was “a historic resolution of a fiercely controversial issue.” Nearly two decades later, the Court re-affirmed Roe and said it was time for its opponents to accept that the issue had been resolved and end the country’s division.
In a Meet the Press interview that aired today, Donald Trump insisted that he will finally end the abortion debate. “I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.” This peace would be achieved, he suggested, by “coming up with a number that’s going to make people happy.” That number would not be “terrible” like the six-week cutoff for abortion signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis or “radical” like the acceptance of abortions very late in pregnancy by the Democrats.
It has been pro-lifers who have refused time and again to let the fight be done. It may be the least popular stand the pro-life movement has taken. Most pro-lifers are well aware that public opinion does not permit a pro-life resolution of the controversy. But we have tried to hold open the debate so that we could secure some legal protections for unborn children and hope to gain more in the future.
Pro-lifers should again reject any offer of a lasting settlement that falls far short of what justice requires. And Trump should be pressed on just what is so “terrible” about the pro-life laws of Florida — which Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Texas, and many other states have equaled or exceeded.