In the year 2022, Trump professed the sway he had over the Supreme Court justices who voted against Roe v. Wade, simultaneously striving to detach both his campaign effort and the broader Republican Party from the political consequences that decision provoked. Although he now aspires to reclaim presidential office, his earlier stance insisted on a federalist perspective wherein abortion policies are rightly dictated by individual states.
Trump showed an active role in the alterations made to the longstanding anti-abortion stance in Republican ideology. Unceremoniously removed from the platform was the overarching endorsement for the Human Life Amendment, or any equivalent federal legislations aiming to prevent the act of abortion.
Voicing his resistance against Democrats’ labeling of these actions as a national prohibition on abortion, Trump vehemently argued against such allegations. On occasions, he even threatened to reject an absolute abortion prohibition if it was put forth for his approval.
Trump seemed keen to establish himself favorably in comparison to Kamala Harris on the issue of abortion. He criticized the Democrats intensely over late-term abortion practices and attempted to box Harris into a corner during a debate, questioning her readiness to place restrictions based on gestational periods.
Trump was relentless as he forced the announcers to confront Harris with the query, ‘Accepting abortion operations in the eighth month, ninth month, seventh month, would she?’ His inflammatory comments on Democrats’ stance on abortion claimed that they are unequivocally extreme. ‘They are particularly radical in the matter of abortion,’ he declared.
The Democratic party was heavily reliant on the discord surrounding abortion to entice voters, an approach that helped them fend off Republican advances in the congressional contests two years prior. Unfortunately for them, this method fell flat this year, leading to a substantial Republican victory enticing a control over both the Presidency and Congress.
Exit poll results revealed how strikingly close Harris was to Trump on who voters trusted more with abortion topics. Interestingly, Harris was favored by just over half the respondents (49%), with Trump trailing by a negligible margin (45%). Despite Harris obtaining the endorsement of a considerable proportion of those who deemed abortion to be their paramount issue, it only represented a meager 14% of the participants surveyed, overshadowed by concerns of democracy and economic performances.
Even with Trump’s seemingly soft stance on the anti-abortion campaign in 2024, he still swayed 91% of voters who believed in the illegality of abortion. This figures were only slightly higher than those whose principal concern was immigration (90%). Astonishingly, Trump also managed to secure 29% of the votes from those in favor of legal abortion.
People supporting unrestricted legality of abortion swarmed to Harris, with Trump securing an unremarkable 10% of those votes. However, Harris only managed to draw an equal amount of voters who believed in the legality of abortion under most circumstances, a group balanced equally for both contenders.
Case by case scenarios revealed how Trump triumphed over voters preferring illegal abortion in most circumstances, bagging 92% of the votes against Harris’ trifling 7%. Similarly, nearly nine in ten of the voters who believed abortion should be illegal under all circumstances opted for Trump, leaving a meager 11% for Harris – a significant Republican lead.
Trump won an astounding 82% of white evangelical votes, a group that traditionally harbors a contradicting view towards abortion. Showing his best performance across his three presidential campaigns, he further carried 72% of the total white Protestants vote and received more than half the Catholic votes.
One possible hint of wavering support amongst social conservatives was evident in the slightly lower percentage of voters who identified themselves as white evangelicals or born-again Christians compared to previous election years. Yet, Trump’s popularity remained high amongst these groups, securing 80% of their votes during his electoral face-off with Hillary Clinton and 76% when against Joe Biden.
Randall Terry, a zealous anti-abortion activist and Constitution Party nominee, could only gather 41,177 votes. He was limited by his ballot availability in a mere 12 states, hence was unable to impact key battleground states like Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, where he was not present on the ballot. As a result, he came in at seventh place nationally.
It is noteworthy that Trump won in three out of seven states that clashed against the legal protection of abortion. Meanwhile, Florida rejected a liberal abortion measure requiring a 60% approval rating which included Trump’s disapproval vote. Despite this, Trump’s lead in Florida was undeniable, exceeding the opposition’s tally by a substantial 13 point victory.
Even in South Dakota, where voters are predominantly against establishing a constitutional right for abortion, Trump surged ahead of the opposition votes by roughly 5 point margin. Across the nation, Trump enjoyed electoral success, amassing 312 electoral votes during an election that saw the majority favor the legality of abortion at a ratio of little more than two-to-one.
In the upcoming political tussle surrounding abortion, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. anticipates his confirmation for the position of health and human service secretary, Trump might feel the need to reassure his political allies. Kennedy, a staunch supporter of legal abortions, could throw a wrench in the works for Trump who will likely need to convince Republicans that his administrative approach towards abortion will remain unchanged.