September 16, 2016

Trump Tries to Convince Anti-Abortion Voters that He Is for Real. Again.

He plans to sign a 20-week abortion ban, defund Planned Parenthood and more if elected.

Seth Wenig/AP

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Donald Trump cemented his conversion to an opponent of abortion—and extended his outreach to pro-life voters—with an announcement Friday of the formation of his campaign’s pro-life coalition. The coalition will be headed by Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abortion advocacy group.

For Dannenfelser, this is the culmination of a rapid evolution on Trump’s candidacy. In January, she signed on to a letter from pro-life leaders complaining that they were “disgusted” by Trump’s treatment of women and that Trump could not be trusted to “defend both unborn children and the dignity of women.” The letter explicitly urged voters “to support an alternative candidate.” 

In the past month, Dannenfelser has been forthright about the fact that Trump might be a liability for anti-abortion candidates for lower offices. Because Trump was recently a supporter of abortion rights, anti-abortion advocates have worried that skepticism about his pro-life bona fides might discourage conservative voters from going to the polls. This concern about the inconsistency of Trump’s anti-abortion stance has led the Susan B. Anthony List to spend heavily on efforts to turn out pro-life voters in battleground Senate and House races in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and Utah.

In a letter announcing the coalition, Trump reinforced his commitment to the three main promises on abortion that he’s repeated throughout the election: to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices, to defund Planned Parenthood, and to sign into law a 20-week abortion ban that stalled in the Senate in 2015.

Trump also made a new, fourth commitment: to enshrine the Hyde Amendment—a provision that prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion—into permanent law. Hillary Clinton has said she will work to repeal the Hyde Amendment, and this year’s Democratic platform included language on a Hyde repeal for the first time ever.

The Trump campaign made the announcement of the pro-life coalition in a letter released Friday. Additional co-chairs of the groups will be announced later this month.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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