May 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Donald Trump gets an A+ for his first 100 days from many for his pro-life record, but social conservatives battling the LGBTQ agenda are less enthused about Trump, with one giving him a C+.
“You could not get a better grade. It’s simply an A+,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a grassroots pro-life lobby, speaking to Trump’s solid record on behalf of the unborn.
“I’m thrilled to have been wrong about this,” said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, who endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for president. “Donald Trump has turned out to be a real champion for life and for families, and we’re very grateful.”
SBA List gave the following as Trump’s major right-to-life achievements in his first 100 days:
— Made strong pro-life appointments to key positions, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, HHS Secretary Tom Price, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway;
— Reinstated the Mexico City Policy to stop tax dollars paying for abortions overseas;
— Defunded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “which is complicit in China's birth limitation policy that includes forced abortion”;
— Enacted the Congressional Review Act H.J. Res 43 to allow states the option to prioritize Title X funding away from Planned Parenthood — “undoing Obama's gift to Planned Parenthood that forced states to fund the abortion giant”;
— Confirmed pro-life Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and “kept his promise to only appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court” by confirming Judge Gorsuch;
— Supported legislation in the U.S. House that repeals Obamacare and redirects taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood to community health centers
One caveat among some pro-lifers are those like Andy Schlafly (son of the late social conservative icon, Phyllis Schlafly), who are adopting a “wait-and-see” approach on Gorsuch, due to his affirmation of judicial precedent on abortion and homosexual “marriage” during his confirmation hearings. Others say Schlafly is distorting Gorsuch’s record.
To the above SBA List highlighting Trump’ pro-life achievements can be added several other pro-life actions, some of which are symbolic in value but nevertheless have energized millions of pro-life voters who went overwhelmingly for Trump in the November election.
High among those is Trump sending Vice President Pence to address the March for Life on Jan. 27. Pence became the highest-ranking administration speaker ever to speak at the annual pro-life event since it was started to protest the Roe v. Wade decision nationalizing abortion-on-demand. He declared at the huge rally, “Life is winning again in America.”
And last week, Trump appointed veteran pro-life activist Dr. Charmaine Yoest, CEO of Americans United for Life, to be Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Such actions have led many pro-life advocates to declare Trump the most pro-life president since Ronald Reagan.
Meanwhile, pro-abortion activists are enraged at Trump and mobilizing against him. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, like others on the pro-abortion side, has vehemently denounced Trump.
“The all-out war on women and families in this new administration has been unprecedented,” Richards said.
Pro-family record less stellar
On the pro-family side, Trump has had a mixed record, according to activists battling to reverse the LGBTQ agenda. Trump has been applauded for:
— Jettisoning the Obama “transgender” school executive order mandating accommodation of gender-confused students in opposite-sex locker rooms, restrooms and sports teams.
— Appointing Tennessee State Rep. Mark Green as Army Secretary, replacing Obama’s openly homosexual, Eric Fanning.
— Appointing pro-family conservative Roger Severino as an advisor to pro-life, pro-family HHS Secretary Tom Price (and for appointing Price himself).
On the other hand, Trump has been criticized by socially conservative pro-family activists for:
— Declaring, as president-elect, in a CBS 60 Minutes interview in November shortly after his victory, that homosexual “marriage” was “settled law … and I’m fine with that.” That Trump made such a statement regarding the alleged permanence of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling imposing “gay marriage” on the nation was a stunning rhetorical setback for social conservatives, who noted that Obergefell is less than two years old. In contrast, Trump expressed no such finality about the Court’s 43-year-old Roe v Wade ruling establishing legal abortion across America.
— Extended Obama’s executive order forcing federal contractors to have pro-homosexual and “transgender-inclusive” nondiscrimination policies as a condition of doing business with the federal government.
— Failed to issue a pro-religious-liberty executive order, reportedly at the urging of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both Trump advisers. The young power couple once co-hosted a 2011 fundraiser to legalize homosexuality-based “marriage” in New York. Their reported social liberalism has touched off widespread resentment among conservatives who fear Ivanka and Kushner will get President Trump’s ear in internal policy debates, resulting in more liberal policies.
— Allowed Obama’s “LGBT International Envoy,” homosexual activist Randy Berry, to stay on the job in the new Republican administration. Conservatives condemned Obama for using Berry, the State Department and U.S. AID (Agency for International Development) to push homosexuality and gender confusion (“transgenderism”) on smaller countries like Jamaica whose citizens reject such behaviors as immoral.
— Nominate open homosexual and same-sex “marriage” advocate Rick Grenell as U.S. Ambassador to NATO.
— Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, is pro-LGBTQ, surprising many conservatives who support her pro-school-choice advocacy but had no idea of her commitment to homosexual and transgender agendas. Sec. DeVos quickly opposed Trump’s reversal of Obama’s school “transgender” mandate and, as Education Secretary, met for two hours with “gay” and “transgender” activists who complained about Trump.
Greg Quinlan, who was once a homosexual activist but who left the “gay” lifestyle and is now a Christian conservative lobbyist, gives Trump a C+ on LGBTQ issues.
“There are influences inside the Trump administration that are persuading him to empower the LGBT activist lobby,” said Quinlan, founder and president of the Center for Garden State Families.
Citing Trump’s appointment of Grenell and his failure to eliminate Obama’s “International LGBT Envoy” in the foreign policy apparatus, Quinlan told LifeSiteNews, “This is what gives people who voted for Trump — and put him over the top — grave concern.”
He praised Trump for his pro-family appointments but called on the president to firmly protect religious freedom through executive order and to push the Johnson Amendment through Congress. Both would fulfill Trump’s promises on the campaign trail.
The Johnson Amendment hampers churches from being involved in “political” work as ostensible 501c3 organizations, despite the fact that churches “don’t need a letter of tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service,” according to pro-family leader Matt Barber.