President Donald Trump compared his position on abortion to that of President Ronald Reagan. | Getty Images White House ‘Strongly pro-life’ Trump tweets on abortion

President Donald Trump on Saturday night indirectly addressed the nation’s recent spate of new abortion legislation, saying he was “strongly pro-life.”

“As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions — Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother — the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” the president wrote on Twitter.


New restrictions on abortion in Alabama and Georgia, among other places, have upped the nation’s ongoing battle over abortion rights by putting strict restrictions on the procedure and creating new legal penalties.

Some of the recently enacted laws or pending pieces of legislation go beyond Trump’s formula; Alabama‘s new law, for instance, only allows exceptions when the mother’s life is in danger.

Those pieces of legislation have likely set up legal battles that are expected to head to the U.S. Supreme Court and possibly lead to a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the law of the land since 1973. Abortion foes are hoping the additions of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court will lead to abortion being heavily restricted or eliminated.

Trump indirectly addressed those prospects as well in his tweets.

“We have come very far in the last two years with 105 wonderful new..... Federal Judges (many more to come), two great new Supreme Court Justices, the Mexico City Policy, and a whole new & positive attitude about the Right to Life. The Radical Left, with late term abortion (and worse), is imploding on this issue. We must stick together and Win.... ....for Life in 2020. If we are foolish and do not stay UNITED as one, all of our hard fought gains for Life can, and will, rapidly disappear!“

Trump’s statement about Reagan doesn’t precisely capture Reagan’s position on abortion. At the start of his term of governor in California in 1967, Reagan signed legislation that liberalized abortion laws. He subsequently became stridently anti-abortion though, as Trump pointed out, he said he would allow limited exceptions.

“Let us unite as a nation,” Reagan said in his 1988 State of the Union address, “and protect the unborn with legislation that would stop all Federal funding for abortion and with a human life amendment making, of course, an exception where the unborn child threatens the life of the mother. Our Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes the right of taking a life in self-defense. But with that one exception, let us look to those others in our land who cry out for children to adopt.“

Reagan also appointed Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, who affirmed the central principles of Roe v. Wade in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 decision.

Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also mentioned Reagan.

“I personally believe life does begin at conception,” he told host Chuck Todd. “That's the standard that most Republicans who have held the presidency in modern times have held as well. Now they understand that there are certain tragic cases like rape or incest or when a mother's life is endangered that we ought to make an account for. That was the position that Ronald Reagan has as well. But I personally believe that life begins at conception.“

