'The president is the problem': Influential conservatives shift blame to Trump

Increasingly “frustrated” that the president has not followed up his campaign promises with action, the head of one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups complained to the Wall Street Journal that the president has become an obstacle to their goal of outlawing the medical procedure.

According to a report from the Journal’s Philip Wegmann, Liz Essley Whyte and Jennifer Calfa, key players in the anti-choice movement have grown exasperated with Trump almost a year and a half into his second term, in part because the number of abortions is increasing.

"Trump is the problem. The president is the problem," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the influential president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in an interview with the Journal.

The anti-abortion lobby expected to be celebrating by now: A conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and Trump — who calls himself the "most pro-life president in history" — is back in the Oval Office.

Instead, they're watching abortion pills flourish, the Journal is reporting. The availability of mifepristone during Trump's second term has led anti-abortion advocates to decry the president's appointees, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary who have done little to halt the spread.

Anti-abortion leaders had hoped the Trump administration would roll back Biden-era rules allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed online and shipped through the mail — regulations that enable clinicians in states with liberal abortion laws, such as New York, to prescribe and send pills to women in states with strict abortion bans, such as Mississippi.

The FDA has not only left those rules intact under Makary's leadership — it approved a new generic version of the drug last fall and has yet to produce a promised safety study of the pill.

"This is just insulting, right? This is not what we voted for," complained Marc Wheat, general counsel for Advancing American Freedom, an organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, called the situation "unprecedented," noting that Republican states are now challenging a Republican administration over abortion policy.

"You have Republican states that are challenging a Republican administration over this because their laws are being undermined," Perkins said. "Pro-life voters are going to be wondering what's going on when they head into the polls in November."

Dannenfelser added: "It's shameful that the Trump administration's inaction has forced pro-life states to take their battle to the federal courts."

Speaking with the Journal she also suggested the White House is deliberately avoiding the issue.

"It's very clear that the issue is perceived as the third rail, and you just have to stay away from it. You cannot utter the A-word," Dannenfelser said of how she believes Trump handles the topic.