During his CNN debate with President Joe Biden on June 27, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump praised the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization — which overturned Roe v. Wade after 49 years and ended abortion as a national right.
Since then, abortion has become illegal or greatly restricted in a long list of GOP-controlled states, while some Democrat-controlled states have ramped up their protections for abortion rights.
Trump, during the debate, argued that abortion should be a states' rights issue but didn't call for a nationwide abortion ban — which many of Trump's far-right evangelical Christian nationalist allies are proposing. And Trump's framing of the abortion issue, according to Washington Post reporters Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey, has become a source of tension between him and the religious right.
In an article published on July 5, the journalists explain, "The escalating behind-the-scenes disagreement over the abortion language has become so tense and acrimonious in recent weeks that some social conservative leaders have issued public warnings of a coming split within Trump's coalition. Others have started to discuss an effort to issue a 'minority report' to the platform at the (2024 Republican National) Convention, according to the people involved, who like others for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations."
According to Scherer and Dawsey, Trump's advisers "have been angered by the public pressure from anti-abortion activists, according to people familiar with the campaign's internal discussions."
The Post reporters note that in a letter sent to RNC Chairman Michael Whatley sent on July 1, evangelical Christian fundamentalist Tony Perkins — who heads the Family Research Council (FRC) — attacked these discussions as "stalling tactics" on the part of Trump's advisers.
An anti-abortion activist, quoted anonymously, told the Post, "Our posture was: 'Let's fix this behind the scenes.' Once it became more apparent to us that they didn't want to work with us and seemed inclined to want to pick a fight with us, we have been more vocal."
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Read the Washington Post's full report at this link (subscription required).
