Former President Donald Trump on Saturday says he was proud to be ‘the most pro-life president’ in U.S. history as religious conservatives marked the first anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade.
Trump was speaking before the Faith & Freedom Coalition Gala in Washington D.C., and noted that he was speaking on the one year anniversary of the Dobbs v Jackson ruling.
In that ruling, the conservative majority overturned Roe v Wade — which in 1973 ruled that a right to have an abortion was protected by the Constitution. Since the Dobbs ruling a number of laws limiting abortions have been passed at state level.
Trump has been criticized by some pro-life advocates after he called Florida’s law limiting abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy ‘too harsh.’
On Saturday, he addressed those who view him as insufficiently pro-life through a story of a woman who defended him to other conservatives by saying ‘his guy ended Roe v Wade.’
Even though the ruling came in 2022 after he left the White House, Trump has been attributed with impacting the decision by his appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his time in office.
Trump welcomed the comparison.
‘And I sort of said that myself, actually. But I’m proud to be the most pro-life president in American history,’ he said.
‘From my first day in office, I took historic action to protect the unborn, very historic. Nobody else did anything near what we did,’ he said.
Trump cited moves including reinstating the Mexico City policy — which barred federal funding going to organizations abroad that perform abortions.
He also took aim at pro-abortion activists, accusing them of wanting ‘unlimited abortion on demand and even executing babies after birth.’
‘They are the radical people when they’re willing to kill a child after birth, they’re willing to take it beyond the nine months. They are the radical people. They are the people that are really in trouble with the Lord,’ he said.
He also emphasized the pro-life message that it often put forward by Christians that all life is sacred — even the lives of those who have not yet been born.
‘Every child, born or unborn, is a sacred gift from God,’ he said.