INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Donald Trump on Monday urged anti-abortion Christian groups to stand up for “innocent lives.” Democrats want to focus of this year's presidential election.
In a recorded message, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee praised the activism of those attending an event in Indianapolis hosted by the Danbury Institute. Southern Baptist Convention Annual MeetingThe newly founded institute is a coalition of churches, Christians and organizations that aim to eradicate abortion altogether.
On Monday, an in-person panel of speakers stepped up its anti-abortion stance, with top Southern Baptist leaders calling for a tougher stance on IVF. Southern Baptist Seminary president Albert Mohler said IVF is a “commodification of fertilized eggs” that violates human dignity. Mohler criticized pastors and politicians who take a more liberal stance on IVF, including in states that protected IVF donors from prosecution and civil lawsuits after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children.
“We'll see how pro-life the pro-life movement is,” Mohler said.
Trump has repeatedly touted his work to overturn federally guaranteed abortion rights, including appointing the three justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. resisted supporting a nationwide abortion ban “I want to leave the issue up to the states. Contrary to Mueller's views, Trump supports access to IVF.”
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In a recorded speech, Trump thanked the audience for their “extraordinary devotion to God and country” and said they all needed to come together to defend values including religious freedom, free speech, innocent lives and American heritage and traditions.
“You can't vote for a Democrat. They're against religion, they're against your religion, especially your religion,” Trump said. “You can't vote for a Democrat. You've got to go out and vote.”
Southern Baptists and Republicans are divided on abortion policy, with some calling for an immediate, total abortion ban and others open to gradual tactics. Polls over the past few years have shown that a majority of Americans support access to abortion, and abortion-rights groups have made gains in votes across states, including in conservative-led states, since Roe was overturned. Kansas and Ohio.
Like the Republican Party, the Southern Baptist Convention has moved steadily to the right since the 1980s and was a forerunner of a broader religious movement whose members strongly supported Republican presidents from Ronald Reagan to Trump. The Conservative Baptist Network, one of the event's sponsors, wants to move the conservative denomination even further to the right.
Southern Baptists and other evangelicals have supported Trump despite his criticism of President Bill Clinton's sexual behavior in the 1990s, and continue to do so despite allegations of sexual misconduct, multiple divorces and a 34-count conviction in connection with a scheme to pay hush money to porn actors in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election. Trump spoke the same day he appeared at a virtual rally. Pre-sentence interview required With New York probation officers.
Many Southern Baptists say they see him as the only alternative to Democratic policies they detest.
H. Sharaya Colter, a spokeswoman for the Danbury National Museum of Science, said in a statement that the presidential election was a “binary choice” and that Trump “has demonstrated his willingness to defend the value of life even if it is politically unpopular.”
Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and previously an outspoken critic of Clinton, wrote a column after Trump's conviction in which he attacked Democrats for their support of transgender rights.
“Whatever you say about Donald Trump and his sex scandals, he does not confuse men and women,” Mohler wrote. On Monday, he condemned the prosecution and conviction of Trump, while other speakers cited Christian nationalism, Americans and Christians Identity.
President Trump has said he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban, and in an interview with Fox News Channel last week, commenting on why some states allow abortion rights while others restrict them, he said, “The people are deciding, and in many ways, that's a beautiful thing to see.”
For more than a year before announcing his position this spring, Trump, unlike many other Republicans who ultimately dropped out of the presidential race, refrained from supporting specific national restrictions on abortion. Trump has repeatedly spoken out against the issue. It can be politically difficult He suggested he would “negotiate” a policy that would include exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
The Democratic Party and President Joe Biden's campaign They tried to tie up Trump such as the most conservative state-level abortion bans and the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision. Limited access to IVF Other widely available fertility treatment procedures.
“Four more years of Donald Trump means empowering organizations like Danbury Medical Institute that want to ban abortion nationwide and punish women who get abortions,” said Sarafina Chitica, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign. “Trump bragged about overturning Roe, thinks the extreme state abortion bans he is responsible for are 'working great,' and would sign a nationwide abortion ban if he had the chance. This is the stakes for November's election.”
Asked about the speech at the Danbury National Museum of Science, Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Trump “has been very clear that he supports states' right to make their own laws on this issue and that he supports the three exceptions relating to rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
“President Trump is committed to accommodating diverse groups on every issue, as evidenced by his recent speech to the House of Representatives,” Levitt said. Libertarian Conventionhis Meeting with trade unionsand his campaign efforts. Diverse Regions Across the country.”
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