Donald Trump is the lone GOP candidate to refrain from calls to totally defund Planned Parenthood, but that might only cost him pennies, not dollars, among primary voters.
Just about every Republican competing for the presidential nomination has said the women’s health and abortion provider should lose all federal funding, although those funds can’t legally be used for abortions.
Trump, on the other hand, told CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday that while he agrees federal dollars shouldn’t be used for abortions, Planned Parenthood provides other services that are good, such as contraceptives — suggesting he wouldn’t choose to strip the funds if given the choice.
“I would look at the good aspects of [Planned Parenthood], and I would also look, because I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also,” he said. “Because we have to take care of women.”
Few dispute that a Republican with any hope of winning in early primary battlegrounds like Iowa, South Carolina and Florida must strongly oppose abortion, and past candidates who have appeared to waffle on the issue (such as Herman Cain in 2011) have suffered because of it.
At the same time, polls show that GOP primary voters place less importance on a candidate’s stance on social issues — including abortion — than on how they feel about economic or foreign policy. Every Republican presidential nominee for the last 15 years has opposed abortions with rape, incest and mother’s life exemptions, underscoring the issue’s unifying effect within the party.
“They’re more distrusting of somebody who supports common core or who has given up on repealing Obamacare,” said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. “It’s the difference between agreement and intensity.”
Three out of four respondents to a straw poll at the American Conservative Union’s annual conference in February called themselves “pro-life.”
But when asked to rank different issues when deciding which primary candidate to support, just 9 percent gave a candidate’s stance on “moral issues, like abortion” top importance. In contrast, 52 percent ranked economic policy as their top deciding issue and 29 percent said foreign policy was most important.
The biggest deal breaker, respondents said, was if a candidate supported expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, followed by supporting gay marriage, supporting immigration reform that includes amnesty and supporting common core education standards. Being “pro-choice” came after all of that.
Conway said internal polling done by her firm in the primary states of Iowa, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Florida found similar results, with likely primary voters ranking education, immigration, same-sex marriage and Medicaid expansion as more important factors than abortion in their voting decisions.
Trump did raise the eyebrows of a number of anti-abortion leaders after refusing to whole-heartedly condemn Planned Parenthood, as his opponents have done. Live Action’s Lila Rose said his statements reveal an ignorance about the group’s “horrific abortion practices.” Influential Iowa conservative Bob Vander Plaats told the Daily Beast that his group wants to “discuss” Trump’s comments with him further.
But Trump hasn’t gotten much more than a hand slap so far. The punchy billionaire has been careful to emphasize his present stance against abortion, saying he changed his views on the topic after a friend decided against abortion and he watched her child grow up.
And, like every other leading primary contender, he’s expressed support for federal legislation to ban most abortions midway through pregnancy. That ban, known as a “fetal pain” bill, is likely to get a Senate vote this fall.
Political analysts say Trump wasn’t going to win anyway among the slice of voters who primarily base their vote upon how hardline a candidate appears on abortion. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are already stronger candidates among these voters. But for the rest of primary voters, a candidate who is clear that he or she opposes abortion is probably good enough, said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor for the Cook Political Report.
“The average GOP primary voter will accept a candidate who is pro-life enough,” she said.
