(LifeSiteNews) – With the 2024 Iowa Caucus approaching on January 15, LifeSiteNews is pleased to re-present some of our extensive coverage of the GOP primary and where remaining candidates stand on issues of life, faith, family, and freedom.
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination. As president, Trump appointed the three conservative Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade. He also regularly enacted pro-life policies, including cutting off Title X funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion vendors. He also reinstated, and expanded, the Mexico City Policy, forbidding taxpayer funds from going overseas to fund abortions.
However, since the fall of Roe, he has distanced himself from the pro-life movement and criticized states passing laws that restrict the killing of preborn babies. He criticized Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 opponent, for signing a law that makes most abortions illegal when a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, calling it a “terrible mistake.”
This campaign cycle he has claimed he would bring together “both sides” and create a solution where pro-lifers and abortion supporters “are going to like me.”
On transgenderism, Trump has spoken out against the mutilation of minors, recently criticizing Ohio Governor Mike DeWine for vetoing a ban on the procedures. He has also criticized gender ideology in schools, vowing to cut funding to schools that push transgenderism. As president, he generally opposed the transgender movement, while remaining close to LGBT activists in general. Richard Grenell, Trump’s ambassador to Germany and then acting director of national intelligence, is “married” to another man and was the first openly homosexual individual to serve in a cabinet position. Grenell spearheaded the Trump administration’s global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality.
Trump also oversaw the national lockdown of 2020. Operation Warp Speed was conducted on his watch, and he continues to take credit for the unsafe and ineffective COVID-19 injections which so many of his base were mandated or pressured to take by employers, schools, and private businesses. He also awarded Dr. Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation shortly before leaving office.
Read more on Trump’s record below:
Trump defied the GOP ‘secret society’ by overturning Roe v. Wade and calling for peace in Ukraine
Trump hosts gala for homosexual Republicans at Mar-a-Lago after Biden signs same-sex ‘marriage’ law
Trump’s latest remarks on Fauci, COVID draw criticism from DeSantis, others
Trump promises to pardon jailed pro-life rescuers, ‘every political prisoner’ of Biden admin
Trump supports ‘Pride Month,’ again pledges to overturn laws criminalizing homosexuality worldwide
Governor Ron DeSantis
As governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis signed legislation outlawing most abortions when a baby’s heartbeat can be detected (around six weeks) and opposed funding for abortions in the Sunshine State. He said he was “proud to have signed the heartbeat bill” into law. However, he made comments during a December CNN town hall about allowing for “exceptions” in the law for fetal anomalies and rape.
He also said he would sign a federal law banning most abortions at 15 weeks, though that would only protect 3 percent of babies from being killed in the womb.
On the issue of transgenderism, Florida has placed some limits on the chemical and surgical mutilation of adults and essentially banned the procedures for kids, though there are legal challenges.
DeSantis also implemented laws that ensured students were not taught about inappropriate sexual content in the schools, signed into law the most generous school choice program in the country, re-opened schools during COVID hysteria, effectively banned private businesses from forcing experimental mRNA injections on employees, and banned the vaccine passports that were a fixture of life in most left-wing urban areas in the U.S. in mid- to late 2021 and even 2022.
DeSantis has emerged as a favorite amongst many in the anti-lockdown, anti-medical mandate crowd, and has also vowed to ban central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) if he becomes president.
Read more on DeSantis’ record below:
DeSantis administration warns against new COVID boosters for people under 65
Florida Supreme Court approves DeSantis request for grand jury to investigate COVID shots
Florida governor calls for special session to fight federal vaccine mandates
DeSantis slams Biden’s vaccine orders, will fine cities that mandate the shot
DeSantis was right: Definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is rapidly changing to include booster shots
Ambassador Nikki Haley
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley supported pro-life initiatives, despite pushback from staff, while representing the United States at the United Nations and as governor of South Carolina. For example, the U.S. stopped funding the pro-contraception, pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund during Haley’s tenure.
Under Gov. Haley, South Carolina suspended abortion facility licenses and signed a 20-week abortion ban (protecting only around 1 percent of babies) in 2016. As a state legislator, she also supported measures against abortion, including prohibiting state health insurance plans from covering the killing of preborn babies, though that proposal did not pass.
However, while those actions may have been understandable at the time due to the limited ability of states to restrict abortion due to Roe v. Wade, Haley has not shifted her stance to support a national federal abortion ban. She has said as governor that she would have supported a six-week ban on abortion.
But as a presidential candidate, Haley has sought to promote abortifacient birth control as part of her strategy, arguing that a federal ban could never pass Congress. While touting her pro-life views, she has emphasized the need to find “consensus” on the issue and said that abortion “is personal for every woman and every man. So I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want you to judge me for being pro-life.”
On the issue of transgenderism, Haley has said she does not believe there should be laws that prevent gender-confused kids from undergoing surgical and chemical mutilation. She said schools should not push “gender pronouns” but otherwise took the position that “the law should stay out of it and I think parents should handle it. This is a job for the parents to handle.” She added the contradictory statement that “when a child becomes 18, they can do that [mutilate their bodies]. But I think up until then – we see with our teenage kids, they go through a lot in puberty. They go through a lot of confusion, they go through a lot of anxiety, they go through a lot of pressures. We should support them, the whole way through, but we don’t need to go in and force something in schools.”
Haley has also come under fire from conservative commentators for her neocon foreign policy views, particularly as related to the Ukraine war, and calling anonymous social media accounts a “national security threat.” She was a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader Honoree in 2011 and in 2021 named Hilary Clinton as a role model.
Read more on Haley’s record below:
Nikki Haley again criticizes Republican senator’s effort to stop Biden military abortion policy
Nikki Haley slammed for calling anonymous social media accounts ‘national security threat’
Democrat mega donor gives $250k to boost Nikki Haley’s campaign and ‘defeat Trump’
Nikki Haley sides with Disney in dispute with DeSantis, invites company to move to South Carolina
World Economic Forum-linked Nikki Haley announces 2024 presidential run
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy has emphasized “anti-wokeness” in his campaign, challenged the GOP establishment, and taken on the left-wing media.
While the candidate has described himself as “unapologetically pro-life,” and he believes Dobbs v. Jackson “overturned Roe correctly on the grounds of the constitution,” Ramaswamy said recently that he doesn’t believe abortion is constitutionally a federal issue.
“More unborn babies will die in the next 30 years if we federalize this issue,” declared Ramaswamy, predicting that the next time Democrats control the White House and legislature, they would then reinstate Roe v. Wade on the grounds that abortion is a federal issue.
“That’s a loss for the pro-life movement,” said Ramaswamy, who said that the other Republican presidential candidates favor a federal ban on abortion at some level.
In June 2023, Ramaswamy told LifeSiteNews he’d consider supporting a federal abortion law. “I’m keeping an open mind on that,” he said at the time. “That’s where I am.”
He said he opposes federal funding for abortion, expanded adoption, and better access to childcare.
Ramaswamy has been unequivocal in condemning transgenderism, affirming that gender dysphoria is a “mental health disorder” and highlighting the plight of de-transitioners.
“So my view is that people, especially kids, when they say their gender doesn’t match their biological sex, that means they’re suffering from a condition, and the compassionate thing to do is not to affirm that confusion,” he has previously said.
He has said he would support a federal ban on the mutilation of gender-confused children.
Read more on Ramaswamy’s record below:
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy challenges contenders to commit to pardoning Trump
Vivek Ramaswamy proposes codifying ‘sexual responsibility for men’ to address abortion
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reaffirms transgenderism as ‘mental health disorder’
Vivek Ramaswamy corrects previous assertion that homosexuality is ‘hardwired’ from birth
Vivek Ramaswamy tells Tucker Carlson: ‘We’re on the cusp of a revolution’
GOP presidential candidate condemns child ‘sex changes’ but says states should decide abortion laws
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