Associated Press
A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some of the Republican Party’s most powerful evangelical Christian voices are gathering to celebrate a ruling that sent shockwaves through American politics and stripped away a constitutional protection that stood for almost a half century.
At the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference in Washington, GOP presidential candidates will be urged to keep pushing for stronger abortion restrictions, even as Democrats insist the issue will buoy them ahead of the 2024 election.
Former President Donald Trump, whose three nominees to the high court allowed for the reversal of nationwide abortion rights, will give the keynote address Saturday night, the anniversary of the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Many of his Republican rivals are set to speak Friday, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, said the conference’s dates were negotiated years ago, so the fact that it’s falling on the Dobbs anniversary is a “serendipitous coincidence.”
“But we’re certainly going to do everything that we can, as an organization and as a pro-life and pro-family movement, to give our candidates a little bit of a testosterone booster shot and explain to them that they should not be on the defensive,” Reed said. “Those who are afraid of it need to, candidly, grow a backbone.”
Such a political pep talk may be necessary since Democrats say fighting to preserve abortion rights can energize their base and help the party hold the Senate, flip the House and reelect President Joe Biden. Despite unfavorable historical precedent, Democrats managed a stronger-than-expected showing during last year’s Midterm elections and continue to point to abortion as a key reason why.
Even Trump has suggested strict abortion restrictions were a weakness for Republicans, posting on his social media site in January that the party’s underwhelming midterm performance “wasn’t my fault” and instead blaming “’the ’abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother.”
Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said this week, “Every 2024 Republican presidential candidate — every single one — is running on an extreme anti-choice record.” The DNC announced a six-figure ad campaign, including billboards from Tallahassee to Phoenix, that will trumpet GOP support for a nationwide abortion ban.
The Supreme Court ruling paved the way for near-total bans in some Republican-led states, though voters in others rejected state constitutional referendums that would have removed virtually any abortion right protections. Democrats have vowed to codify the right to an abortion in federal law, but don’t have the votes in Congress to do so.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, head of the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm, said top Republican presidential candidates will back a nationwide abortion ban to win support in their GOP primaries, then shift to a more moderate position for the general election.
“They will try to juice up their base with the issue and then pretend that that’s not their position,” Peters said. “They’re not going to get away with that.”
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last July found that a majority of Americans say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide. But the same poll showed that many Americans back some restrictions on abortion, especially after the first trimester of pregnancy.
Among the GOP candidates, DeSantis and Pence support bans after six weeks of pregnancy. Scott has backed a 15-week ban, and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is speaking to the conference on Saturday, has said she supports a federal ban but has not said at what point in pregnancy she would seek to ban abortions.
Trump, meanwhile, has avoided specifying what national limits, if any, he would support on abortion.
One major anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, has said it would not support any White House candidate who did not, at a minimum, support passing a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Those attending the gathering will encourage the presidential candidates to “shift the focus and shift the language” around abortion, Reed said, so as to “frame the narrative, not around stages of gestation — whether weeks or months or trimesters, which I think is falling into the trap of the left — but talking about the unborn child.”
Pence, an evangelical Christian, will be speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event for the first time since 2021, when he was booed by some and faced shouts of “traitor.” That event, held in Florida, came months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when Pence defied Trump’s unprecedented demands to overturn Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The former vice president is also expected to speak Saturday at the National Celebrate Life Rally at the Lincoln Memorial.
Despite evangelicals’ initial reluctance to back Trump in 2016, Reed said the former President’s administration had a strong abortion record to point to. He said Trump also impressed evangelicals by moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, which the evangelical movement supported because of the deep religious significance of the area.
“I think the bar has been raised and I think the ceiling is going to keep moving up,” Reed said of evangelicals’ expectations for pro-Israel, anti-abortion presidential primary candidates.
That’s because, he said, the candidates understand “there is no path to the Republican nomination for president that doesn’t go through the evangelical vote.”
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
15 comments
Suze
June 23, 2023 at 7:36 am
These out of touch with reality evangelicals need to keep their hands , values and judgments off my body. Women are not cattle. We are not owned by these perverts and will not go back in time. They will not win this battle. This is not Iran
Michael K
June 23, 2023 at 7:50 am
Am extra dose boost of testosterone to control women’s bodies? In their list for power and money, these so-called “evangelicals” demonstrate no sign of compassion as they seek to create the American Taliban to erase tolerance and destroy democracy.
Dont Say FLA
June 23, 2023 at 7:56 am
When I was a little kid and got dragged to church, at church they told stories of Christian persecution. As an adult, I can totally get why Chrisitians were “persecuted.” It’s because they’re a bunch of self righteous, finger pointing dick holes. We need to import a shit load of lions to USA.
Ocean Joe
June 23, 2023 at 8:15 am
Ralph Reed, about the only one of these charlatans that hasn’t been caught fooling around, is worth $18,000,000.
How does a preacher rack up that kind of wealth? Pat Robertson, $100,000,000. They’re in it for the cash, tormenting their gullible followers is icing on the cake for them. If the God stuff is for real, they’ll be in a heap of trouble on judgment day.
It's Complicated
June 23, 2023 at 9:57 am
Ralph Reed made his money as a DC lobbyist (with BIG clients), political consultant (campaigns), and in public relations. As a principal in the firm, this was lucrative. He has never been employed as a preacher.
Pat Robertson made his fortune in broadcasting, building a lowly UHF station he purchased in 1960 into a media conglomerate reaching 180 countries and broadcasting in 71 languages. His big payday came from selling International Family Entertainment/The Family Channel (his publicly traded on the NYSE for-profit content generator company). He owned numerous and varied business interests around the globe, wrote numerous books, and had a lucrative business relationship with General Nutrition Center. He was an ordained Southern Baptist minister, but to my knowledge, he was never employed as a preacher.
In short, both of these guys are/were successful businessmen. Both of them are/were earnest in their Christian faith. No one is perfect.
Dont Say FLA
June 23, 2023 at 8:21 am
GOP wants to finger point at Mexicans and claim Mexicans are rapists, but who is it that outlawed safe & legal abortion? GOP did that. And why? So they can rape white women and force white babies. GOPs are the real rapists. All their abortion legislation is their confession.
Jackie
June 23, 2023 at 8:29 am
For every anti abortion activist. There needs to be a database of all the children that need to be adopted. And every anti abortion person should have to adopt at least one child or more based on their incomes. And NO Government help to support the children! All on their money!
It's Complicated
June 23, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Who adopts the most?
https://adoption.org/who-adopts-the-most
The answer from the research:
* Older People. The majority of people who adopt are over 30. In fact, 81 percent of adoptive mothers are between 35-44 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And approximately one-half are between 40 and 44 years old. Only 3 percent of adoptive mothers are in the 18-29 age group.
* Men. More than twice as many men than women adopt. Some are gay couples; others are men who have previously fathered children. Men who adopt are also somewhat younger than their women counterparts with more than 25 percent in the 30-34 age range.
* Women Who Sought Medical Help to Have a Baby. If a woman has used infertility services, she is 10 times more likely to adopt, says the CDC. This figure is not surprising when you consider how many women come to adoption after suffering for years with infertility.
* Christians. According to EthicsDaily.com, 5 percent of practicing Christians in the United States have adopted, which is more than twice the number of all adults who have adopted. In addition, a survey showed that 38 percent of practicing Christians had seriously considered adoption, while only 26 percent of all adults had.
* Caucasians. Most adoptive parents (73 percent) are non-Hispanic white adults, according to a study by the Barna Group. However, they are less likely to adopt a Caucasian child. Only 37 percent of children adopted are Caucasian.
EARL PITTS AMERICAN
June 23, 2023 at 9:11 am
Good morning America,
The above rambeling nonsense article is nothing but 8itch triggers for dook 4 brains lefty’s.
Need proof? Just do a quick review of the comments and try to read the article if your sensabilities can stand that much leftist drival nonsensical attacks on normal people. Leftist writers preaching to the small insignaficant group of low IQ Dook 4 Brains Lefty’s. Nothing really to see here.
So theres that.
Have a nice day,
Earl Pitts American
ScienceBLVR
June 23, 2023 at 9:19 am
Perhaps Pink said it best.. ok, it was directed at Bush, but it certainly applies to our governor and these guys, and if the tune fits, own it boys.
“Dear Mr. Governor, What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away? What kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay? …How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?”
Covid Was the Rapture
June 23, 2023 at 10:08 am
Covid was the rapture. Ralph Reed, still being among us, was judged by our Lord and Savior Jesus not to be worthy of ascension to Heaven. Beware people still on Earth claiming to be Christians. They are liars.
PeterH
June 23, 2023 at 12:04 pm
Republicans are America’s biggest problem!
Vote all Republicans out of office!
Joe
June 23, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Washington DC parents, hide your children! The Faith & Freedom Carnival is coming to town!
Dale A Arnold
June 23, 2023 at 3:43 pm
They are the proverbial dog that caught the car.
Let them bark and howl… Until they see the cars backup lights! Oops
Y’all Nazi Christians
June 23, 2023 at 8:19 pm
Y’all Qaeda
Comments are closed.