Trump won’t mention abortion in brief, virtual remarks to anti-abortion group

Hours before Donald Trump was expected to make a virtual address to a Christian advocacy organization that wants to ban all abortions and calls the procedure “child sacrifice,” the former president’s campaign said Monday that he would only give a pre-recorded welcome message lasting less than two minutes — in which he does not say the word “abortion” at all.

Trump was scheduled to make a virtual “address” Monday at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, an organization that also seeks to ban same-sex marriage and use the Bible to guide public policy, according to its website. The organizers, who promoted Trump as a speaker, noted on X the event sold out.

But in his remarks, obtained first by POLITICO, Trump doesn’t make mention of “abortion.”

“We have to defend religious liberty, free speech, innocent life and the heritage and traditions that built America into the greatest nation in the history of the world,” Trump is expected to say, according to a script of his remarks provided by his campaign. “I know that each of you is protecting those values every day — and I hope we’ll be defending them side by side for the next four years.”

A senior Trump campaign official told POLITICO Monday the video was pre-recorded and a brief welcome message for the attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. The campaign official was granted anonymity to freely discuss the matter.

President Joe Biden’s campaign had sharply criticized Trump’s decision to appear at the event, saying Trump “loves campaigning with abortion ban extremists.” And the Indiana Democratic Party joined in Monday morning, accusing Trump of “doing the bidding of the most extreme anti-choice groups in the country.”

A Trump campaign spokesperson previously defended Trump’s appearance, saying he “is committed to addressing groups with diverse opinions on all of the issues.”

H. Sharayah Colter, chief communications officer for the Danbury Institute — an advocacy group established earlier this year by a coalition of churches, Christians and other organizations — did not immediately respond to an inquiry about whether Trump’s remarks matched with their billing.