US Election: Pro-Life Republican Sweep
Thursday, November 17, 2016
 
Voters in the 2016 election turned to Republican candidates at federal and state levels resulting in sweeping victories for the pro-life Republican Party. At the top of the ticket Donald Trump was elected to be the next President of the United States promising to select pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to end painful late term abortions, defund Planned Parenthood if it continues to perform abortion and instead allocate funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women, and  make the Hyde Amendment permanent law so taxpayers do not have to pay for abortions.

President-elect Trump won a majority of self-identified Catholics by 52 to 45 percent and garnered overwhelming support from evangelicals by 81 to 16 percent. Voters were concerned about hostility to people of faith from the Clinton campaign demonstrated in leaked campaign emails and most importantly, Hillary Clinton’s extreme position supporting abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Clinton’s contemptuous remarks about the need to “change religious beliefs” on abortion and other issues along with her unqualified support for abortion giant Planned Parenthood are also believed to have turned religious voters against her.

Faith-based voters also appeared to have had enough of the hostile actions of the Obama administration toward religious freedom including health care policies that force faith-based organizations and businesses to provide contraception to employees in violation of religious beliefs. The current vacancy on the Supreme Court and the expectation of additional vacancies in the next four years that will determine American policy on critical issues including abortion and religious freedom were also a concern for voters.

Vice-President-elect Mike Pence helped secure the Trump victory with his deep pro-life commitment, devout Christian faith and track record, first as a Member of the House and then as governor of Indiana, to advance laws and policies to protect unborn children and their mothers from abortion.

Pro-life majorities were elected to both the U.S. House and Senate; expectations are high for the advance of legislation to regulate abortion including the banning of horrific late term abortion methods. Pro-life Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, was unanimously elected to return as Speaker by the 239 Republican House Members, along with the rest of the leadership team, all opposed to abortion. Kevin McCarthy remains Majority Leader, Steve Scalise as Majority Whip and Cathy McMorris Rodgers as Republican Conference Chair.

Senate Republicans re-elected their leadership team, also all pro-life. The 51 Republican senators re-elected Senator Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader, John Cornyn as Majority Whip, John Thune as Conference Chair, Roy Blunt as Conference Vice Chair, and John Barrasso as Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

On the state level, Republicans increased governorships to at least 33 with the possibility of winning the still-to-be-determined election in the state of North Carolina; this historic control of state governorships has not happened since 1922.

State legislatures are also at an all time high with 68 out of 99 state legislative chambers in Republican control, including 33 states where Republicans control both chambers. This includes the state of Nebraska which has a single-chamber legislature.

It is highly anticipated that state legislatures will continue the pro-life trend of the last five years during which 334 pro-life laws were enacted to save preborn children from abortion.

President-elect Trump won the Electoral College by 306 votes to 232 for Hillary Clinton; 270 votes of the 538 total number of electors are needed to win. The number of electors for each state is based on each state’s number of Representatives to Congress which is based on consensus data and on the number of senators. Electors will meet on December 19 in their home state and vote separately for President and Vice-President.

Despite an attempt by supporters of Hillary Clinton to pressure Trump electors to ignore the will of voters in their state and switch their vote, it is fully expected that Donald Trump will be selected by the Electoral College and elected President despite having lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. This has happened four previous times in U.S. history, including the 2000 election of George W. Bush and the 1824 election of John Quincy Adams.

Pro-abortion organizations in the U.S. and abroad are fearful about actions that the Trump administration and Congress will take against abortion, especially those that will affect funding for their work. Their fears begin with concern that President Trump on his first day in office will re-enact the Mexico City Policy that restricts U.S. funding to any foreign non-governmental organization that promotes or provides abortion and that Congress will cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which helps support their work.

PNCI hopes that President Trump and Congress will respect the position of a majority of Americans who oppose taxpayer funding of abortion and will implement a pro-life strategy that includes stopping U.S. funding for abortion in the U.S., at the U.N. and around the world.  


 


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