President-elect Trump's pro-life allies are embarking on a campaign to narrow his Supreme Court short list to ensure a pro-choice nominee does not replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Andy Schlafly, lawyer for the conservative Eagle Forum and son of the late conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, held a strategy call on Tuesday with other pro-life groups joining his cause and warned that Trump "cannot be expected to know who's pro-life and who isn't, so he's going to rely on us, on conservatives," to guide him.

"We're going to see the Republican establishment in D.C. led by [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell try to deflect Trump away from taking a pro-life candidate," Schlafly said on the call. "What the Trump team will do is they will trot out some people with pro-life credentials to vouch for the nominee and we've got to be ready for that and we've got to anticipate that and start to bring that down now before they even pull it."

Schlafly told the Washington Examiner that 70 like-minded organizations have signed onto his coalition letter opposing the potential nomination of Diane Sykes, Steven Colloton, Joan Larsen, Neil Gorsuch, Raymond Kethledge or Allison Eid to the high court. The coalition letter set to be sent to Trump later this week features signatories from think tanks, academia and the legal community.

Schlafly told the Examiner those who oppose ensuring a pro-life nominee include incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the Federalist Society and senators looking for the easy way out when the confirmation battle begins. Schlafly said he has begun communicating with some senators' staffs and some people on Trump's transition team, without naming the people involved.

Schlafly said it's not clear to him, after speaking with those who have talked with Trump about the Supreme Court, which advisers will have the most influence over Trump in his work to fill the high court's vacancy. "There's a lot of conflict within the transition team," he said.

Schlafly told allies last month that the "likelihood is increasing" that Trump would interview at least one of the six candidates, according to an email obtained by Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ed Whelan. Schlafly told the Examiner he believes the six people are purposely hiding their pro-choice beliefs.

"They want to pretend to be pro-life because they want to be picked by a Republican president for the Supreme Court," Schlafly said. "They try to disguise it, I mean, nearly all six have tried very hard to disguise their feelings, so you have to dig deeply and read what they wrote closely."

Schlafly said he wants to see Trump instead nominate Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady, 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Gruender or Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who also are on Trump's short list.

Whether the effort piloted by Schlafly succeeds at eliminating any candidate is yet to be determined. But his portrayal of the battle lines as representative of an ongoing feud between Washington insiders and grassroots outsiders could help his chances.

"Some of these people that claim to have pro-life credentials really don't. They may be personally pro-life, they may go to church, but they really have not done anything meaningful pro-life," Schlafly said on Tuesday's strategy call. "So we are going to harshly criticize some of these false pro-lifers who are then trotted out to vouch for a pro-choice nominee."