Trump stance on abortion

Donald Trump once co-sponsored a dinner for the president emeritus of NARAL, and described himself as "very pro-choice" as recently as 1999.

But as he prepares to take the presidency, it is increasingly clear that Trump could upend Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling affirming a woman's right to choose.

Trump's cabinet will be stocked with ardent anti-abortion advocates, from Vice President Mike Pence to the pick for human-services secretary, Tom Price, who doesn't even support free birth control for women.

No wonder abortion opponents are feeling optimistic about the demise of Roe v. Wade. The Republican majority in the Ohio Legislature last week passed an anti-abortion bill so extreme it would virtually outlaw abortion in the state before most women know they're pregnant.

Ohio Right to Life believed, until recently, that the measure could not withstand a constitutional challenge.

What changed? Trump, and his power to pick anti-abortion rights ideologues for the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Ohio lawmakers.

The Supreme Court that struck down an anti-abortion law this summer will be getting at least one Trump appointee to the empty seat, and there's no reason to think a new justice will be anything but a hard-liner.

And that could usher in a new era of conservative state legislatures' extreme assaults on a woman's right to an abortion. Since the election, Texas officials added new rules requiring that aborted fetuses get a burial, even those conceived in rape, regardless of the stage of pregnancy.

Trump is the king of reading polls, as he reminded his fans during the campaign.

He should read this Pew Research Center poll: 56 percent of Americans support making abortion available in all or most circumstances, versus 41 percent who say it should be illegal in all or most cases. Those numbers have held relatively steady for decades. America is center-left on abortion access.

The Ohio law outlaws abortion once a fetal heart beat is detected, which can occur at six weeks, when the fetus is the size of a pea. Like the Texas rules, there is no exception for pregnancies from rape or incest. It is not a subtle attack on a woman's right to choose. Gov. John Kasich should veto it.

For liberals who were quizzical about Trump's appeal to evangelicals, the answer is now clear. Trump, with his cabinet picks and his rhetoric on Supreme Court appointments, appears eager to be Roe v. Wade's nemesis.

For women who seek to control their own bodies, and for the majority of Americans who support safe, legal and rare abortions, the next four years are going to an ugly, divisive fight.

This editorial appeared on the Seattle Times and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.