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.