Trump addresses abortion issue at end of pre-election campaign for Catholic voters
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised to sign an executive order that would require health care providers to provide medical care to all babies born alive as he campaigned to appeal to voters who oppose abortion.
The White House has not disclosed more details about the ordinance, but Trump’s announcement follows numerous attempts by GOP lawmakers in Washington and in state capitals across the country to pass legislation that threatens the prison for doctors who do not try to save the lives of infants born. alive during abortions.
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The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the resulting vacancy in the Supreme Court provide Trump with yet another opportunity to appeal to anti-abortion voters.
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Organizations representing obstetricians and gynecologists say the law already offers protections for newborns, whether they were born in a failed abortion or under other circumstances. But when the abnormalities are so severe that a newborn baby dies soon after birth, a family can choose what’s called hospice care or comfort care. This could involve allowing the baby to die naturally without medical intervention.
It is not a crime to forgo sophisticated medical intervention in cases where severe fetal abnormalities leave a newborn baby with no chance of survival. This has happened on rare occasions during a late abortion, according to federal government data.
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“It looks like this administration will once again seek a solution to a non-existent problem. Health care providers already have an obligation to provide appropriate medical care. ‘
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In a video message Wednesday to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Trump said his “born alive executive order” would ensure that babies born alive, regardless of the circumstances, “receive the medical care they deserve.”
“It is our sacrosanct moral duty,” Trump said.
Critics said Trump was trying to “score low political points.”
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“It looks like this administration will once again seek a solution to a non-existent problem,” said Jacqueline Ayers, vice president of the political advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Health care providers already have an obligation to provide appropriate medical care. “
Trump’s comments come as his campaign and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden scramble to win over Roman Catholic voters in the November 3 presidential election. For decades, this group has been a deciding vote in the US presidential election, with a majority supporting the winner – whether Republican or Democrat – almost every time.
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Trump supporters say loyal Catholics should not vote for Biden, who has been a lifelong Catholic, because of his support for abortion rights. Biden’s stated position is that he is personally opposed to abortion but believes it should remain legal because Jesuit magazine America reported this summer.
Trump’s critics say he is dividing and does not deserve the votes of conscientious Catholics.
A Pew Research Center poll in the summer found that 50% of Catholics said they supported Trump in the presidential election, compared to 49% for Biden. A Pew analysis of voters in 2016 showed that 52% of Catholics voted for Trump.
President Barack Obama has won the Catholic vote in the previous two elections, and Democrats won majority Catholic votes in 13 of the last 17 presidential elections, according to a compilation of historical Gallup data from Georgetown University.
Among 2018 midterm Catholic voters, 56% said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 42% said it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast.
A 2019 NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans consider Roe v. Wade as an established law and does not wish to see this change, although 61% wish to see restrictions placed on abortion rights, as Jesuit magazine reported.
AP VoteCast found abortion low on the priority list of midterm voters: just 2% nationwide in 2018 saw abortion as the number one issue facing the country. About a quarter named health care and immigration; about 2 in 10 named the economy and jobs.