President Donald Trump's pledge to appoint “pro-life” justices to the Supreme Court is motivating the anti-abortion movement to maintain Republican control of the Senate. | Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images How anti-abortion forces learned to love Trump

President Donald Trump on Tuesday night was feted by a leading anti-abortion group that called him the most "pro-life president" ever. It's the exact same group that just two years ago begged Iowa caucus voters to nominate “anyone” but Trump.

“I’m totally eating my words,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, who praised Trump at the group's annual gala in Washington. “It’s the happiest wrong I’ve ever been."


Thanks to Trump, the anti-abortion movement has notched victories on federal funding for Planned Parenthood, allowing businesses to opt out of contraception coverage in health plans and confirming conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The president as a result has amassed an army of loyalists who are eyeing November's midterm elections as an opportunity to ensure that Trump’s next Supreme Court pick — if he gets one — puts them a step closer toward undoing Roe v. Wade, the ruling that established abortion rights.

SBA led the 2016 anti-Trump letter to Iowa caucusgoers and a follow-up to South Carolina primary voters. The movement at the time was deeply skeptical of the candidate, who in the past had defined himself as “pro-choice,” was on his third marriage and has a history of making disparaging comments about women. But they say he has governed consistently as an anti-abortion president.

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"I care far less about the veneer and the polish than I do about the concrete actions that have concrete consequences,” Dannenfelser said.

Trump used SBA’s gala to tout his administration’s changes to the Title X family planning program that would effectively eliminate funding for abortion providers including Planned Parenthood — the longtime foe of the anti-abortion movement. And he called for electing anti-abortion Republicans this fall to further his agenda, including ensuring that any Supreme Court hopeful he nominates can win confirmation in the closely divided Senate.

“Every day between now and November we must work together to elect more lawmakers who share our values … and proudly stand for life,” Trump said.

He called out four Democratic senators who voted against a proposed 20-week abortion ban in January: Jon Tester of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

They “all voted against the 20-week bill and in favor of late-term abortion. We are nine votes away from passing the 20-week abortion bill in the Senate. So we have to get them out of there,” Trump said.

His administration’s latest policy changes to Title X will likely face a court challenge, and critics say they threaten physicians' freedom to discuss reproductive health options and provide the best care to the low-income women who rely on the program for contraception, not abortion. But Trump's allies see them as evidence he's delivered on his campaign promises, said Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president who is close with the anti-abortion movement.

“He made good on that,” she said of defunding. “He’s just delivered.”

“He keeps taking action,” she added. “This is not a check-the-box proposition for President Trump.”

The Title X changes come on the heels of executive actions to undo an Obamacare requirement that most employers provide contraception in their employee health plans; the expansion of federal prohibitions on foreign aid to nongovernmental organizations that even mention abortion; the establishment of a federal office to review complaints from health care workers who have moral objections to performing some procedures; and deep cuts to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.

“He has really fulfilled his campaign promises, and it’s been very refreshing to see that. I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made,” said Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), an abortion foe who says Trump himself deserves a lot of the credit. “These are actions by the executive branch, something that former pro-life presidents like George W. Bush did not do as it relates to the Title X funding.”

The partnership seems immune to political tempests that regularly buffet the president. This is a constituency that didn’t jump ship when video leaked of candidate Trump saying he would grab women by the genitals or as he now weathers backlash over his longtime personal attorney paying hush money to an adult firm actress over an alleged affair.

“He knew what it meant to strike a very important deal,” Dannenfelser said. “He knew how to form an important partnership, and he knows what it means to be a partner. He certainly saw how supportive we were in the battleground states and how supportive we are now.”

Key to that partnership is the presence of administration figures such as Conway; Vice President Mike Pence, who wrote the first legislation to defund Planned Parenthood a decade ago; and Katy Talento, who is at the Domestic Policy Council.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Pence’s role has been vital to administrative decisions such as Title X changes.

“Maybe Mike Pence is hanging around a little closer to the desk of the president,” he quipped.

Less obvious are the lengths to which groups like Susan B. Anthony have gone not only to accept Trump, but also to work with him. SBA List is the most politically active of the Washington anti-abortion groups and, along with National Right to Life, has some of the strongest relationships with congressional Republicans and the administration.

SBA List’s former interim legislative affairs director, Steven Valentine, was named associate director for policy in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, which oversees programs like Title X and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.

He became deputy chief of staff for the office last fall.

Valentine’s brother, Billy, is a lobbyist for SBA List, and disclosures show he’s lobbied HHS on Title X.

With a friend in the White House, the group’s spending on lobbying has grown from between $270,000 and $500,000 a year between 2013 and 2016 to $740,000 last year. It's spent $220,000 in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

Critics charge that the group compromised itself by ultimately embracing Trump simply to achieve policy victories.

“This is an organization that chose to tolerate Trump because it got them Pence in exchange,” said Mary Alice Carter, executive director of Equity Forward, a group that supports abortion rights.

Mallory Quigley, the SBA List spokeswoman, said the group has been transparent about its evolving views on Trump. She noted that the close relationship to the Trump White House followed eight years of President Barack Obama, whose administration's positions “were a nonstarter."

“From the top down, the Trump administration has put strong pro-life leaders in positions of influence, and that’s indicative of the president’s commitment to the [abortion] issue and the vice president’s commitment to the issue,” Quigley said.

The Trump White House and SBA List are so in sync that the group encouraged guests at Tuesday's bash to stay at the Trump International Hotel. The organization even held a contest to win a trip to the gala that includes free accommodations at the venue. An SBA List spokeswoman said the group had already reserved a bloc of rooms at the Trump hotel, adding that it was “fun” for its attendees to stay at a Trump venue.

SBA’s support could be vital in the midterm elections. The group is already knocking on doors in the battleground states of Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Florida, with plans to go into West Virginia, Wisconsin, Montana and North Dakota.

Trump's pledge to appoint “pro-life” justices to the Supreme Court — one that no other Republican candidate had ever explicitly made — is motivating the anti-abortion movement to maintain Republican control of the Senate for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.

Abortion supporters and foes both assume there are four Supreme Court votes to reverse Roe. The fifth and final vote would be at stake if Trump can appoint a replacement for one of the four liberal justices or for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Reagan-appointee who has supported abortion rights decisions.

Any pick would have to get through the closely divided Senate. With 51 Republicans in the Senate but about 49 anti-abortion votes and a handful of lawmakers willing to buck their party on abortion or Planned Parenthood, it’s unlikely that a justice meeting Trump's criteria would survive a heated confirmation battle.

“When you look at confirming a Supreme Court justice and [Sen. Susan] Collins making the deciding vote, it makes us nervous,” Dannenfelser said of the Maine Republican, who supports abortion rights.

