Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump acknowledges supporters at a campaign rally Monday, April 4. | AP Photo Anti-abortion leaders disappointed to not hear from Trump

Anti-abortion activists gathered in Washington on Wednesday had expected to hear from Donald Trump about his abortion positions. They left disappointed.

Trump did not address the 115 Forum, a conference of abortion foes in Washington organized by Priests for Life. Three sources associated with the group said organizers had initially led attendees to believe that Trump would be speaking to them by phone. Yet later on Wednesday, organizers said the mogul would not be speaking.


The appearance was to come one week after the New York businessman made inflammatory remarks about abortion, saying that if the procedure were outlawed, women who received it should be punished. The comment drew fierce criticism — including from prominent anti-abortion activists who said the doctor or caregiver, not the mother, should face consequences. Trump later recanted the comment.

Trump’s campaign on Wednesday said he never intended to call into the conference.

“He is not attending or joining,” said Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, adding that it was the first she’d heard of the conference.

Rev. Frank Pavone, an influential social conservative activist who oversees Priest for Life, declined to address the Trump campaign’s statement that the mogul had never intended to address the group.

"Throughout the election season, many conversations and meetings occur between prolife leaders and candidates. Some of these are public and others are off the record,” Pavone wrote in an email. “What I can say is that Priests for Life carries out efforts to provide all campaigns an opportunity to connect with the prolife leadership in America and to receive solid advice on how to deal with abortion.”

Pavone did not say whether he was disappointed by Trump’s failure to appear, but suggested that he’d effectively quelled the uproar.

"As for Donald Trump, I far prefer the kind of mistake he made recently, and then corrected, regarding who should be punished, than the ongoing deliberate mistake of Clinton and Sanders who cannot seem to find an abortion they don't like," Pavone said.

