As presidential campaigns have heated up, questions of whether Christians have a pro-life candidate to vote for have risen to the surface. Speech after speech has been analyzed, and the media has spun each story differently. Depending on whether they want to motivate Democratic voters or enrage Christian ones, news outlets have “blamed” Trump for the overturn of Roe or claimed that he’s barely pro-life.
As Americans, it is our civic duty to vote, and in this election, there are two choices: former President Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) or Vice President Kamala Harris. While the candidates’ words during the campaign season should not be discounted, what each candidate has done is more important.
During his four years as president, Donald Trump accomplished more to defend the unborn than any other president in the history of America. A few of President Trump’s pro-life highlights included:
- Expanding and reinstating the Mexico City Policy, renamed the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA), which prevented $8.8 billion in family planning and global health funds from going to organizations abroad who pushed an anti-life, pro-abortion agenda.
- Strengthening conscience protections for health care workers, which defended their right to refuse to participate in morally objectionable procedures like abortion or sterilization.
- Terminating government contracts to procure fetal tissue collected from aborted babies to be used for experimentation.
- Coming to the defense of pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) in California where the state, under the FACT Act, was attempting to force PRCs to advertise for abortions.
- Personally sending a letter to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promising to veto any legislation that weakened current pro-life federal policies and laws.
- Working internationally to defend the unborn and reminding the U.N. that there is NO international “right” to an abortion.
- Becoming the first president in history to speak at the national March for Life.
- And of course, appointing three Supreme Court justices who gave Americans the Dobbs decision allowing elected officials to once again protect unborn children.
Vice President Harris’s record on life looks more than a little different:
- In 2015, Kamala Harris sponsored the FACT Act that would require California pregnancy resource centers to advertise for abortion.
- As attorney general in California, she prosecuted whistleblower David Daleiden, whose undercover work led to the exposure of Planned Parenthood as an industry that not only kills unborn children but also profits from the sale of their organs and body parts. Because of his work to defend the unborn, Harris ordered the California Department of Justice to raid Daleiden’s home.
- As a senator, Harris voted against efforts to protect babies born alive after an abortion.
- In the weeks leading up to the Dobbs decision, the vice president schemed with abortionists themselves to discuss how to peddle abortions in a post-Roe world.
- Twice during her tenure as vice president, Harris spoke at events for Emily’s List, the largest organization working to elect women who support the killing of unborn children.
- Immediately before the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs, she held a round table with “faith leaders” to discuss how to promote abortion within faith communities.
- As part of her “Reproductive Freedoms Tour,” Harris has repeatedly argued that laws protecting unborn children’s lives put their mothers’ lives in danger.
- And, in 2024, she became the highest elected official in the United States to publicly visit an abortion business.
Elections matter, especially for the unborn whose lives are at stake. As Americans consider which candidate deserves their vote in the upcoming election, we would all do well to remember that actions speak louder than words.
Mary Szoch is the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.