I often get asked why I, an evangelical pastor, so prominently and enthusiastically support President Donald Trump. There are many reasons, but here’s one of them that’s particularly key: President Trump is the most pro-life president in U.S. history.
President Trump’s unapologetic commitment to protect the sanctity of human life is particularly relevant given that this weekend he became the first president ever to speak at the annual March for Life in Washington.
This isn’t a newfound passion for him. Over the past three and a half years, President Trump has given ample evidence of his commitment to fight for the life of the unborn. In fact, he has, time and again, exceeded our expectations.
For example, in his first year in office, the president reinstated the Mexico City policy. The policy prevents foreign aid worth billions of dollars to be used to fund abortions or abortion-related practices.
The Mexico City policy has become a ping-pong game between political parties, with different administrations reinstating and rescinding it, but in 2019 Trump took it a step further. He expanded the policy to not only cut off funding to foreign organizations that directly perform and promote abortions but also to organizations that support other nonprofits and entities that do. By doing so, he made sure taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions overseas through back channels.
At home, the president has implemented virtually every imaginable pro-life policy and law within his domain as the nation’s chief executive.
At the beginning of his second year, he signed into law H.J. Res. 43, restoring the power of individual states to defund certain abortion facilities from Title X funds. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new rule prohibiting family-planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers. This led Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, to lose an estimated millions of dollars in taxpayer funds and ultimately to withdraw from federal family-planning programs.
The Department of Health and Human Services also awarded a grant to a nonprofit that runs a chain of crisis pregnancy centers. These pregnancy centers provide pregnant women, who often are facing pressure from others to get an abortion, with counseling, education and medical services that are usually free of charge.
Pro-choice organizations such as Planned Parenthood present abortion as a key option for women with an unexpected pregnancy. But the truth is, many of these women would choose otherwise if they didn’t feel alone. We have witnessed this at our church’s own pregnancy center: In 2019, we served 12,000 clients in the Dallas area, and 90% chose life for their unborn children. They just needed support.
If all of these examples are not enough evidence that the Trump administration is pro-life unlike any other before, consider what the president has achieved in the judiciary. He nominated two pro-life justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court, and has nominated many other judges who believe in the sanctity of human life to lower courts. Think about it: President Trump has achieved something that will go beyond his presidency — a pro-life judiciary for the next generation.
As the 2020 election ramps up, the stakes in the fight for the life of the unborn have never been higher.
The leading Democratic candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden, have all said they support abortion rights and, if elected, their administrations would allow the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the procedure. Make no mistake, there would be no limit to their abortion policies.
Those of us, especially evangelicals, who care about the sanctity of human life, will have to redouble our efforts to make sure unborn children have the right to live. I’m thankful that President Trump has proven a reliable partner in this fight. Supporting him is a no-brainer.
And, of course, that’s just his pro-life record.
We could also talk about his administration’s staunch defense of religious liberty at home and abroad, his historical actions on criminal justice reform and his efforts to revitalize the economy to help boost disadvantaged and low-income families. The list goes on and on.
The better question is not why an evangelical would support President Trump, but how is it possible for a Bible-believing evangelical to not support the most pro-life president in the history of the United States.
Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
Read more at Jack Graham: Why can evangelicals support Trump? He’s the most pro-life president in U.S. history
