Before he won the 2016 presidential election, former President Donald Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who were unabashedly pro-life. Almost six years later, his commitment is reportedly about to pay off.
During an October 2016 debate with Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump told moderator Chris Wallace his commitment to appointing pro-life justices would end in Roe v. Wade being overturned.
“If we put another two, or perhaps three, justices on … that will happen,” Trump said of overturning the opinion. “And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”
During his presidency, Trump appointed three justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. While Gorsuch and Kavanaugh both expressed hesitancy to overturn Roe v. Wade during their hearings, a new report from Politico said both justices voted to overturn the verdict in December.
On Monday, Politico said it had obtained a draft of a majority opinion from Justice Samuel Alito, indicating the court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In addition, the outlet reported Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito in voting to strike down the previous opinion.
To be clear, there are multiple concerns about Politico’s report. For one thing, who leaked a classified Supreme Court opinion, and what was their motive in doing so?
Since the opinion is just a draft, overturning Roe v. Wade is not a done deal yet, and the names of the justices who reportedly voted to overturn the opinion have not been confirmed.
With that said, if Politico’s report is accurate, it means all three Trump-appointed justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. This would represent a clear fulfillment of his promise in 2016.
Far too often, certain members of the Republican party claim to be pro-life but fail to take strong action against abortion. Trump did just the opposite.
Trump committed to appointing pro-life justices to the court, and all evidence suggests the three justices he appointed support that cause. If Roe v. Wade is officially overturned, Trump undoubtedly deserves credit for it.
During a December 2021 interview with The Western Journal, former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said one of the Trump administration’s biggest accomplishments was establishing truly conservative justices and judges throughout the country.
“I mean, the fact that we’re even talking about Roe v. Wade potentially being overturned — that case that has cost the lives of 62 million children in this country, it’s a scourge on the American consciousness — but the fact that we can even talk about that, it’s because of the Trump justices and then the judges throughout the federal court system,” McEnany said. “So that’s his biggest accomplishment.”
This was not an accident. Trump committed to appointing conservative, pro-life justices, and that is exactly what he did.
The conservative movement is gaining steam in America, and Republicans can achieve huge wins across the country. We just have to be willing to stand up and fight for what is right.