Posted on 02/15/2016 2:30:31 PM PST by Morgana
Put Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in the category of those pro-life advocates who question the sincerity of Donald Trump’s pro-life conversion on abortion. During a campaign stop in South Carolina, Cruz questioned Trump’s pro-life bonafides, saying he has a hard time believing that someone who called himself pro-abortion for almost all his life could suddenly have a change of heart and become pro-life.
“If a candidate has spent 60 years of his life describing himself as very, very pro-choice. If a candidate has defended partial birth abortion for most of his adult life, we should not be surprised if, as president, he will not defend the right to life,†Cruz said, according to a Politico report
Some pro-life voters have questioned if Trump is truly pro-life, despite proclamations from Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin that his pro-life conversion is authentic.
Trump ultimately changed his mind on abortion years ago, announcing his pro-life position in 2011, and on partial-birth abortion in the late 1990s after learning more about what the partial-birth abortion procedure actually entails.
“I support a woman’s right to choose, but I am uncomfortable with the procedures. When Tim Russert asked me on Meet the Press if I would ban partial-birth abortion, my pro-choice instincts led me to say no. After the show, I consulted two doctors I respect and, upon learning more about this procedure, I have concluded that I would support a ban,†he said in 2000.
Since his conversion, Trump doesn’t appear to have promoted abortion and continues to say he is pro-life and opposed to funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business. But, in early February, when asked on the campaign trail to provide more specifics about the kind of abortion policies he would implement as president, he declined to give any specifics.
Instead, he repeated what he has say countless times before that he is pro-life on abortion but without providing any further details about what he would do on a myriad of pro-life issues he will face as president — most notably naming judges to the Supreme Court who will determine the abortion policy for the nation for decades to come.
The lack of specifics has already caused a group of leading pro-life women to encourage pro-life voters not to vote for Trump.
In a letter provided to LifeNews, the group of pro-life women leaders claim Trump is not trustworthy on the abortion issue because offhanded comments he’s made make it appear he supports pro-abortion judges on the Supreme Court or a pro-abortion vice-presidential running mate. The group includes heavy hitters like Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List and Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America and black pro-life activist Star Parker.
The letter comes after an op-ed Trump wrote over the weekend outlining his pro-life views on abortion.
Trump opens the column explaining that he is pro-life with exceptions only for the very rarest abortions.
“Let me be clear — I am pro-life. I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk,†he said. “I did not always hold this position, but I had a significant personal experience that brought the precious gift of life into perspective for me.â€
Trump said America has gone astray because it has moved away from the founding principles the nation’s founders put in most — most notably the right to life.
You, sir, are a liar.
Clearly his polling is telling him something quite different. I bet the internal polling shows him closing in.
Thanks — great post. Good information.
Or in TrumpWorld, a pack of lies.
He talked as recently as Saturday night about the good things Planned Parenthood does. He’s donated to pro-abort politicians — lots of them, recently.
I think it’s a campaign conversion.
Trump is starting to resemble Romney more and more.
This is a gross exaggeration. It assumes that Donald Trump was pro-abortion from birth, since he changed his mind some years ago. Abortion wasn't even legal until Trump was 27 years old, and there was great stigma attached to it before then as well as after. Partial-birth abortion was first used in 1983, but didn't reach any threshhold of widespread awareness until 2000, when Trump was 54 years old. In that he withdrew support for abortion several years ago, that window of time hardly qualifies as "most of his adult life."
And although the issue is of great importance to many people, it's not hard to see how a very preoccupied businessman for whom it was not a personal issue for the past many years he has been with Melania could completely ignore the topic and give it very little thought until he actually did start deciding to run for office based mostly on the destruction of our economy by bad trade deals, currency manipulation and illegal immigration, none of which have much to do with abortion.
Sorry, Cruz, you just can't act like a criminal prosecutor and blurt out a specious worst case scenario for the jury and expect to get away with it in the age of the Internet, where people can look up facts.
Let me explain that to you again.
He did not call Roberts “the best ever”. He supported the nomination after it was made, but he had advocated for a different candidate, Michael Luttig. Luttig would have been a fine justice and, I suspect, woudl be President Cruz’s first Supreme Court nominee.
Roberts had been involved, along with Cruz and others, in Bush v. Gore and had done an outstanding job for them. That was how Cruz knew him, and based on that, he supported Roberts’s nomination — as did most conservatives (a notable exception being Ann Coulter).
That doesn’t make him, or them, or anyone but the person who nominated him (GW BUSH) and the Senators who voted to confirm him responsible for Roberts.
This is simply a bogus charge by Trump, and I think he knows it. (If he doesn’t, it says something about him that isn’t good.)
Again, I state FACTS. Donald did say that and he did make those donations. Do you deny that?
"Cruz went on to call Roberts "one of the very best advocates ever," who exemplified "how to try to carry out our craft with the highest level of skill and integrity." In that same message, dated Sept. 13, 2005, Cruz called Roberts "the best Supreme Court litigator in the nation." "I've worked with John and seen him argue numerous cases, and, to my mind, there's not another appellate advocate who's even close," he said... calling him [Roberts] "brilliant." In that article, Cruz explained that he had been part of the team that assembled lawyers to litigate Bush v. Gore, the case that decided the 2000 presidential election. Cruz wrote that he called Roberts and asked him to help with the team, and Roberts immediately hopped on a plane to Florida. "As an individual, John Roberts is undoubtedly a principled conservative, as is the president who appointed him," Cruz wrote in that op-ed.
“One of the very best advocates ever” is a different thing from your claim that “ he called Roberts ‘the best ever’”. Roberts, from all accounts, was a very good litigator — you’d want him as your lawyer.
But he didn’t say that Roberts was the best lawyer whoever lived or that he would be the best Supreme Court justice ever.
You distort what Cruz says to support your candidate, just like your candidate does. It’s not honest.
You're an idiot. You don't call someone one of the "best advocates ever" or "best supreme court litigators in the nation" or "a principled conservative" if you actually, secretly oppose him.
“If a candidate has spent 60 years of his life describing himself as very, very pro-choice....” Cruz said, according to a Politico report
VERY BEST EVER.
Cruz is trying to walk away from his effusive praise, but the truth is the truth.
“Actually what you mean is that you have been able to take enough of what Trump says out of context to piece together evidence for any lie you feel like telling at any particular time. That says more about your character then it does Trump’s.”
Nice spin!
“No, your not. You are a very dishonest poster. I think that has become very clear to everyone, outside of your little echo chamber, over the last few weeks.”
Wow, Donald, who would have known you were a freeper!
“Ted is a professional liar and weasel. Of course he is. He’s a lawyer and a politican. He can’t help himself. I really can’t stand him. It’s actually quite stunning. We have an unabashed capitalist, a self made business man that employs thousands of people, stands up to political correctness and wants to deport illegal invaders, yet many on this forum would side with a career government lawyer, who has produced nothing but words and talk and who has 3 citizenships.”
So what are you trying to say?
“Yeah but Trump has ugly hair.
Never trust a guy who’s hair looks like a a small dog is sitting on his head.”
Looks more like a medium size possum to me!
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