Like many pro-lifers, conservative Christian leader Gary Bauer has struggled with whether to support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Bauer, who served in President Ronald Reagan’s administration and now is the chairman for the Campaign for Working Families, said he finally decided to support Trump for one reason – the unborn.
“Do we know what we’d be getting with Donald Trump? Not exactly, no,” Bauer wrote in a column for the Christian Post. “But we know exactly what we’d get with Hillary, because she’s worked her entire career to promote abortion and to tear down freedom of conscience, and she’s vowed to continue to do so if she wins.”
Bauer said he did not vote for Trump in the primary election, but he will vote for him on Tuesday. He argued that Trump is Americans’ best chance to stop Clinton’s radical pro-abortion agenda.
“It’s a question I have thought long and hard about, and my decision to support Trump for president is not one I came to lightly,” Bauer continued.
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He outlined Clinton’s extreme abortion plans:
Regarding the more than half-billion dollars of taxpayer funds Planned Parenthood receives annually, Clinton has said, “I would like to see Planned Parenthood even get more funding.”
Clinton wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for most abortions. The amendment enjoys strong majority support among the public and has typically gotten bipartisan support in Congress. But this year, Clinton added repealing Hyde to the Democratic National Platform and has pledged to eliminate it if she becomes president. By one estimate, the Hyde Amendment is responsible for saving 2 million unborn lives.
On a narrowly divided court, the next president will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the Supreme Court for decades. Either Trump or Clinton will nominate one justice at the outset of his or her term. And, with two justices in their 80s, Trump or Clinton will likely get at least two more picks, and as many as four total. Hillary has made it clear that she would support only justices who would uphold Roe v. Wade and support abortion on demand. …
But don’t forget the other federal courts. President Obama has appointed 329 federal judges (including two Supreme Court justices), about one-third of the total. We can expect Hillary to appoint at least as many. Think the lower courts don’t matter? The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that pro-life pregnancy centers must promote abortion.
Many are concerned about the sincerity of Trump’s pro-life policies, given that he used to be pro-abortion. But Bauer said Trump has done several things to make good on his pro-life promises, one of the most important being his vice presidential pick, Mike Pence. The governor of Indiana, Pence has been a champion for unborn babies throughout his political career. Most recently, Pence signed a bill to ban sex-selection abortions and abortions based genetic disorders such as Down syndrome.
Bauer said Trump’s list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court also is encouraging. During the last presidential debate, Trump also emphasized that he will nominate “pro-life” justices to the high court.
In contrast, Bauer said abortion activists have labeled Clinton their “champion.” She could easily surpass President Barack Obama as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history.
“This election is not about conservative purity but about which candidate is preferable to the alternative,” Bauer concluded. “This is especially true on abortion, an issue about which the choice could not be clearer.”
