Pro-lifers blaming Trump for saying states should set their own abortion policies makes no sense

It’s not very often that I support former president Donald J. Trump on an important political issue related to morality and oppose former vice-president Mike Pence and many other Christian conservatives.

I understand why many evangelical Protestant, traditional Catholic, and Orthodox Jewish conservatives are upset by Donald J. Trump’s announcement this week that states should set policy on abortion. Using Trump’s own words: “whatever they decide must be the law of the land, and in this case, the law of the state.” Again, “Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be.”

It’s no secret that Trump was close to my last choice in the 2016 Republican primary, in large measure because I didn’t think he was a real conservative and was going to go down to defeat in the general election. This year, I quietly hoped that another candidate, perhaps Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, or (less likely) someone like Mike Pompeo would catch fire in the primaries. However, it’s become clear that the majority of Republicans want Trump, and we have to deal with the reality that, warts and all, he’s going to be the Republican nominee apart from utterly unforeseen…