GOP frontrunner Donald Trump declared that he is pro-life on Saturday, arguing that America is becoming a “culture of death.”
“Let me be clear – I am pro-life,” Trump wrote in a Washington Examiner op-ed.
“Over time, our culture of life in this country has started sliding toward a culture of death,” the billionaire businessman added. “Over 50 million Americans never had the chance to enjoy the opportunities offered by this country.”
“They are missing, and they are missed,” Trump said of the 50 million aborted babies since the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade 43 years ago.
Trump went on to argue why he is pro-life.
“I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk,” Trump stated in the op-ed:
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. My story is well documented, so I will not retell it here. However, what I will do with the remaining space is express my feelings about life, and the culture of life, as we just marked the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
As a real estate mogul, Trump said, “I build things,” arguing that engineers must always follow the rules of physics for structures to endure.
“America, when it is at its best, follows a set of rules that have worked since our Founding,” Trump continued. “One of those rules is that we, as Americans, revere life and have done so since our Founders made it the first, and most important, of our ‘unalienable’ rights.”
He noted that voters will head to the polls in a matter of weeks:
It is my hope that they will choose the builder, the man who has the ability to imagine the greatness of this nation. The next president must follow those principles that work best and that reinforce the reverence Americans hold for life. A culture of life is too important to let slip away for convenience or political correctness. It is by preserving our culture of life that we will Make America Great Again.
Trump said that a right to an abortion is nowhere in the Constitution.
“Public funding of abortion providers is an insult to people of conscience at the least and an affront to good governance at best,” he asserted:
If using taxpayer money to facilitate our slide to a culture of death were not enough, the 1973 decision became a landmark decision demonstrating the utter contempt the court had for federalism and the 10th Amendment. Roe v. Wade gave the court an excuse to dismantle the decisions of state legislatures and the votes of the people. This is a pattern that the court has repeated over and over again since that decision. Roe v. Wade became yet another incidence of disconnect between the people and their government.
Trump’s pro-life op-ed came one day after the March for Life on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.