Trump turned the frogs gay

David French is right to question pro-life organizations and their motivations.

I’ve long used the old fable about the scorpion and the frog to describe Donald Trump’s relationship with evangelical Christians. In the story, halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog: "You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?" The scorpion shrugged, "I could not help myself. It is my nature," as they both sank to their deaths. But this is not what has happened.

Indeed, the frog did not die, but instead, changed. It was inevitable that Trump would turn on Christians, on abortion, on liberty and other things. What surprised me is how those who should have been stung—the frogs—have exposed themselves as scorpions. I’m no longer sure who was giving whom a ride across the river.

I was a little shocked to read an editorial in the New York Times by David French, who publicly aired his doubts about the pro-life movement: “I’m left wondering how much of the movement was truly real.”

When Trump declared that undoing Roe v. Wade and leaving the decision on abortion to the states was good enough, regardless of whether abortions have increased (they have), what kinds of thorny issues have arisen regarding IVF embryos and our response to them (Alabama), or what states may impose such extreme restrictions—or extreme permissions—for abortion, many of his followers didn’t stick with their own stated principles. They simply cheered Trump for his brilliance.

Trump said that if he becomes president again, he would not sign a national 20-week ban on abortion. Not only that, he would not use his public sway to encourage states to have their own abortion bans. His words were to “follow your heart,” and “do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself.” These words could have come from a pro-choice candidate telling voters that their reproductive rights are paramount.

The fact that so many pro-life organizations latched on to Trump’s words with only the mildest chiding, but plenty of support for him as a candidate, exposes their commitment to—not necessarily the goal of reducing abortions—but their own survival as political entities doing things like fundraising, king-making, and lobbying.

In some ways, I’m not surprised. The larger political organizations like Georgia Right to Life have always taken extreme positions on legislation, and held the candidates seeking their endorsement to those positions, even if it meant abandoning good compromise bills that would advance the pro-life cause. I’ve criticized those positions and the politicians that bowed to them, because when Roe v. Wade was in effect, most of those bills would end up stuck down by courts.

Now that Roe is overturned, it’s like the dog that caught the car for political pro-life organizations, because they are now accountable for the results of their positions. They can’t fundraise on overturning Roe because that’s done. Now they have to figure out how to continue, or, pack it up and go do something else. As an analogy, I’ve always wondered what the Muscular Dystrophy Association would do if they actually found a cure for the disease. When Jerry Lewis was alive, he’d always say that the goal is to be done and go away. Though the telethon is gone, I wonder what would happen if there was indeed a cure.

To know what has happened when pro-life groups got what they wanted, we don’t have to wonder. Here’s French:

It’s no wonder, then, that the pro-life cause is in a state of emergency so soon after its greatest legal triumph, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It has lost every referendum since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs, including ballot measures in red states like Kentucky, Kansas, Montana and Ohio. Early polling indicates that Florida’s proposed pro-choice referendum may well cross the 60 percent threshold needed to pass and overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban. In fact, a majority of Republican voters appear to support the referendum.

It’s not that there are no pro-life people in America. There are plenty of good-hearted Christians (and others) who truly believe that abortion is a sin, and except to save the life of the mother, the life of the innocent child should be preserved. There are many who believe that life begins at conception, as a matter of faith and practical legality. There are many who would support some kind of “personhood” legislation. But those people are left without leadership, as the political party they’ve identified with has abandoned them.

Those politicians and organizations that have chosen their support for Trump over their original principles have shown that the scorpion and frog analogy is wrong. There’s a meme all over the internet started by conspiracist Alex Jones: they’re turning the frogs gay by putting chemicals in the water. Of course, it’s false and even humorous to see people believe it. But in politics, Donald Trump has accomplished something akin to turning the frogs gay. He’s turned the pro-life movement into a pro-choice movement.

What do you call it when a politician claims that each state should choose how it handles abortion, and that should be based on voters, who should “do what’s right for yourself”? The pro-choice movement has for many years claimed that the pro-life movement is nothing more than anti-abortion for the sake of promoting a religious hegemony, a progressive form of social engineering, the kind of thing the “Handmaid’s Tale” cosplayers believe. The fact that David French wrote a piece questioning whether they’re actually right should be shocking to Christians. But instead, many evangelicals who support Trump will attack French.

A pastor said back in 2016, that if we elect Trump to the White House, the first time Christians disagree with Trump, “we will get everything that’s coming to us.” I took that to mean persecution. What we got, instead, was disintegration, division, and abandonment of actual principles in favor of simple tribal fighting against “the libs” and anyone who dares to question the Trump cultists.

I suppose we did get what’s coming to us. Many of the frogs who gave a ride to the scorpions crossing the river didn’t get stung and drown. Instead, they turned into scorpions, or whatever those scorpions put into the river water turned the frogs gay.

Whatever the Republican Party formerly believed, or professed to believe, about abortion and being pro-life, the cost proved too high to hold on to that belief. David French is right about that, and he’s also right that there is no truly pro-life party in the United States.