Anti-abortion activists fear Trump won’t hold the line with Democratic Congress

Anti-abortion groups are publicly projecting confidence that the president will follow through on their top demands, including that he veto any bill legalizing later-in-pregnancy abortions and reject taxpayer funding for abortion in federal health plans.But anti-abortion advocates have also told Washington Examiner that they fear that Trump and his inner circle will not hold the line under pressure from Democrats in the new Congress to move to the left on abortion policy. “We have a president whose wife isn’t pro-life. I know his family isn’t pro-life,” said one anti-abortion activist given anonymity to speak candidly. “His chief of staff isn’t pro-life.”Democratic Party leadership in the House has promised action on federal abortion policy within the first 100 hours of being sworn into office at noon on Jan. 3, 2027. Specifically, they aim to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would nullify gestational age limits and in-person screening requirements in states that have restricted access to abortion since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade.Also on the agenda for Democrats is to remove provisions from spending bills, such as the Hyde Amendment, that block funding for abortions in federal health insurance programs such as Medicaid.Democrats have won at least 54 Senate seats and could win two more in Alaska and Mississippi. The party is also on track to win more than 255 House seats, giving them enough leeway to push through legislation that would excite their base nationwide.Noah Brandt, vice president of the anti-abortion group Live Action, told the Washington Examiner that Trump is the “last line of defense against this radical agenda, and he must stand firm.”“That means vetoing any legislation that expands abortion and refusing to sign any spending bill that abandons the Hyde Amendment’s longstanding protections against taxpayer-funded abortions,” Brandt said.Anti-abortion advocates have more reason to be concerned about Trump signing a spending bill that would allow for taxpayer-funded abortion if it becomes a stumbling block to critical legislation.In January, Trump encouraged Republicans to “be flexible on Hyde” while in gridlock with Democrats over whether to extend enhanced premium subsidies for Obamacare insurance plans. The remark rattled the anti-abortion movement and marked one of the rare moments when Republican members of Congress pushed back against the president.Kelsey Pritchard, spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told the Washington Examiner that it was “highly concerning” that Trump encouraged the GOP to compromise on Hyde. She said it was reassuring, though, that there was a “very clear backlash from the base” about the comment.“I do think the administration felt that, and so I would hope that they have an understanding that the Hyde Amendment was always grounded in being this compromise between the two sides,” Pritchard said.Gavin Oxley, director of media strategy for Americans United for Life, said that abortion proponents have weathered “hostile congressional majorities” before with prudential presidential leadership.“It has been the baseline for federal pro-life strategy for half a century and is not to be used as a bargaining chip by this administration,” Oxley said. “We were not flexible a year ago and we are not flexible now.”With merchandise featuring President Donald Trump in the foreground, people participating in the annual March for Life walk from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court, Jan. 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) Pressure from inside the White House Anti-abortion advocates have been highly critical that the current administration has not done enough to advance abortion-related priorities important to the Republican base.The GOP battle over abortion came to a head last fall when congressional Republicans strongly rebuked the Food and Drug Administration for not taking action to restrict telemedicine access to the abortion drug mifepristone, which was speculated to have been delayed until after the midterm elections.One prominent anti-abortion advocate, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told the Washington Examiner the president’s inner circle does not have enough strong opponents to abortion who can be relied upon not to buckle under pressure. The advocate expressed particular concern with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who has been publicly opposed to a national abortion ban on pragmatic grounds.In early October, the Washington Sun reported that Wiles instructed Attorney General Todd Blanche to hold off on any abortion-related policy, including restricting mailing shipments of the abortion pill mifepristone, until after the midterm elections. The White House denied the story.There have been other instances in which Trump needed pressure from outside abortion opponents to include the movement’s priorities in his agenda, including prohibiting federal funds from large abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.A source familiar with the negotiations over Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act previously told the Washington Examiner that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pushed the president to retain a provision of the bill that blocked Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood.At a White House meeting, Johnson warned Trump and Wiles that failing to include the measure would lead anti-abortion advocates to riot. The president was worried that polling showed that defunding Planned Parenthood would help Democrats in elections.Johnson eventually won on defunding Planned Parenthood, but with a catch: the organization would lose just one year of federal reimbursements instead of the decade promised to anti-abortion supporters.Congressional Republicans said that the defunding was reduced from 10 years because the Senate parliamentarian said that doing so was necessary for procedural reasons.Kristan Hawkins, president of the hard-line group Students for Life, in a scathing critique of the midterm election results accused Republican leadership of using the parliamentarian as a thinly veiled excuse for failing on anti-abortion priorities. “If leadership hides behind an unelected, Democrat-appointed staffer again, the pro-life movement will know exactly who made the choice,” she wrote.Hawkins told the Washington Examiner that White House staff have rebuffed anti-abortion advocates’ demands to use executive authority for their priorities, like a permanent debarment of federal dollars from Planned Parenthood and enforcing the arcane Comstock Act to prohibit the mailing of abortion pills.Without a Republican majority in Congress, Hawkins said Trump “has no excuse.”“We’ve gotten the runaround for two years of ‘not this reconciliation bill, that reconciliation bill,’ ‘we’re going to do it via Congress not the administration,’ et cetera, et cetera,” she said. “Well, you’re out of options here, buddy, and it’s time to act.”President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Washington, as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles listens. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner) National abortion legalization not as likely Even in a nightmare scenario for anti-abortion activists, Trump signing a bill that would allow for later-in-pregnancy abortion nationwide is highly unlikely.Multiple anti-abortion advocates who spoke with the Washington Examiner pointed to the moment in the final presidential debate in 2016 when Trump condemned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her abortion stance, saying that she was OK with abortion “in the ninth month” and being able to “rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.”Brandt from Live Action said Trump “campaigned on opposing late-term abortion” and “now he must honor those commitments” if pressured to sign the Women’s Health Protection Act into law.Pritchard of SBA said signing the Women’s Health Protection Act “would undermine everything” from his first six years as president.“I have to hope and believe that if something that crazy reached his desk that he would veto it,” she said.Trump must promise to “draw an uncompromising line in the sand,” the AUL’s Oxley said.“President Trump must publicly promise to veto the Women’s Health Protection Act before it reaches his desk,” Oxley said. “We will not give an inch to a Congress that wills the American people back beneath the regime of Roe, and waiting to react to their legislative attack is a losing strategy.”In terms of winning future elections, Hawkins said the GOP “will cease to be a party” if Trump were to sign an abortion rights bill because they would completely lose grassroots activists during campaign season.WHY TUESDAY’S ELECTION RESULTS WILL DEFINE THE FINAL TWO YEARS OF TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY“If he were to sign that, pro-lifers would be kicked out of the Republican party, and they would be politically homeless,” Hawkins said. “And you try running a local campaign without pro-lifers who are going door knocking. Good luck.”In February, SBA released a poll conducted with Cygnal that found a third of Republicans would be less willing to volunteer for GOP candidates if the party abandoned its anti-abortion principles.