The Washington Examiner reports that the abortion issue has emerged as an "unexpected stumbling block" for former President Donald Trump. 

This comes as Trump continues to pursue the U.S. presidency in 2024.

The Examiner reports:

Former President Donald Trump overcame social conservatives’ concerns about his position on abortion to win the Republican presidential nomination twice. Now, he may have to do so again to make it a third.

Background

As the Examiner suggests, the abortion issue was considered a problem for Trump ahead of his first run, in 2016, for the U.S. presidency. This was because of his background, which clearly suggested support for abortion rights.

Trump, nonetheless, became president, and, in the eyes of social conservatives, he did good things - such as attending March for Life rallies, something that former Republican presidents did not do.

But even more important than this is that Trump made possible the overturning of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade by nominating three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This possibility became a reality during the summer of 2022 when, in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the court overruled Roe, returning the controversial issue of whether abortion ought to be legalized to the people and their state legislators.

The problem

Despite the good that Trump has done for pro-life conservatives,  Trump has recently lost some of their support.

The Dobbs decision was leaked in the spring of 2022, and since then, the Democrats used the false argument - that the case robs a woman of her so-called right to have an abortion - as a political rallying cry.

Many argue that this helped the Democrats to do better in the 2022 midterm elections than anticipated. And, Trump, it would seem, agrees with this argument.

Trump put out a statement, saying:

It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the midterms. It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, [and] just plain disappeared, not to be seen again.

It appears clear that Trump, with this statement, lost some support from pro-life conservatives. This question, in view of 2024, is how many. And, the answer remains unclear.

Trump clarifies

Since that statement, Trump has attempted to respond to the criticism that he has received by clarifying his position, which appears to be that it is necessary, for a winning political candidate, to support exceptions to anti-abortion laws that would allow a woman to have an abortion in certain circumstances.

Trump, in a recent interview, explained:

. . . you have to go with your heart. You have to go with what you feel. But when you have rape, incest and the life of the mother, I think that's something that a lot of people happen to agree with. I don't want to force anybody to do it. I think it's much harder to win elections.