Pro-Lifers Helped Bring Trump to Power. Why Has He Abandoned Us?

I am far from the only young conservative whose interest in politics was sparked by the issue of abortion. In high school and college, we would stake out early-morning spots on the National Mall for the annual March for Life, write postcards to our elected officials and pray rosaries outside abortion clinics.

Along the way, many of us found ourselves in the Republican Party, often picking up other conservative causes along the way — low taxes, limited government, strong defense, border security. The bundle of preferences could be a bit ungainly at times, but we found progressive voices quick to shout down attempts for pro-lifers to work with Democrats. So the G.O.P. became home.

It’s hard to feel that way now. While traditional social conservatives and the Republican Party might be allies on some key issues, it looks like it is no longer just one political party that wants us to shelve our convictions in the name of political expediency. It’s both.

This shift has been a long time coming, but recent events have snapped it into focus. A secularizing America, plus the shifting composition of the Republican Party, means many G.O.P. voters are less churchgoing than prior generations. Many young conservatives, in particular, seem more enthusiastic about owning the libs than strengthening the family.

That might help explain why Republican politicians seemed so unprepared for the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationdecision that overturned Roe v. Wade. They could have prepared by focusing on politically tenable compromise and a wider array of supports for pregnant women and families. Instead, their political strategy in 2022 largely consisted of trying to change the subject, then blaming pro-lifers for poorer-than-expected midterm election results. Meanwhile the G.O.P. has been an unreliable partner in countering the state referendums that have expanded legal protections for abortion in Michigan, Ohio and other states.

Now a rewritten Republican Party platform rubber-stamped by Trump loyalists largely backtracks from its prior goal of protecting the unborn nationwide. Sweeping language declaring a constitutional right to life has been replaced by a somewhat garbled mention of due process, specifying that states are “free to pass laws” that restrict abortion. A mention of the traditional understanding of marriage is also gone. It even omits standing against taxpayer funding for abortion, offering only a mention of opposing “late-term abortion” — a category often understood as excluding the roughly 99 percent of abortion procedures that occur before 21 weeks of pregnancy. The new platform makes sure to include positive mentions of birth control and I.V.F., yet neglects any reference to pregnancy resource centers or child care.