President of Project 2025 partner compares banning abortion to ending slavery and advocates for an incremental approach
American Principles Project's Terry Schilling: “If you want to talk about, you know, banning all abortions, that's great but you're not going to get power to change anything”
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From the August 26, 2024, edition of American Moment's Moment of Truth
TERRY SCHILLING (AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT): The problem is is that the Senate has been holding up even a modest 15 week limits, right, and if we are going to be honest with the voters, which I think is important, we have to tell them what we want to do at the federal level in the federal platform and what the platform says is that we're going to protect the unborn at the late stages, we're going to have late term abortion bans, and we're going to protect them with the 14th amendment. It's very important to do that. It's how we go on offense.
How I've been looking at this is everywhere - ever since Dobbs everywhere where abortion has been on the ballot we have gotten our clocks cleaned. When voters have to choose between all abortions or no abortions, they're choosing all abortions. So we have to change the conversation and the choices between all abortions and some abortions. That's how we move the needle back our way and that's how we get back on our feet and back on offense.
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We have to readjust our strategy and that's what the pro-life movement's doing. We're going on offense on abortion. We aren't the extremists on abortion.
The reality is we - at the federal level, the only thing that's really been discussed and entertained is limiting abortion unrestricted, you know, to the first 15 weeks, first 15 weeks of pregnancy you can get an abortion under the Republicans plan for no reason or any reason at all. After that, we limit it to rape incest and life of the mother. That's so reasonable and it's incredibly popular. It's got 60-65% support across the country. We need to be focusing where we have the majority, not where we're having to win over people and persuade them. Let's rack up the wins now and govern later.
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But when it comes to what you're saying on the campaign trail, when you get attacked on abortion, you have to have a good and persuasive response and saying I'm not going to do anything on abortion is not a believable response. So what I would recommend for every candidate that's running, when you get attacked on abortion, clearly articulate where you would limit abortion to to the voters and do it soundly and safely. I like talking about it - and I would clarify these aren't abortion bans. We're still allowing abortions up until the 15th week. We're limiting abortion to the first 15 weeks. We aren't banning anything. We don't ban alcohol, we limit it to people over 21 years old. And I also think it's important right now to talk about having exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mothers.
So, no, I wouldn't campaign on it. I wouldn't make a central point in my campaign. But when I get attacked on it, I am going to articulate my position clearly and forcefully and make sure that voters know, by the way, that it's the Democrats who support unrestricted access to abortion for no reason or any reason at all, up until the moment of birth and they want you to pay for it, the taxpayers.
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The reality is, is that these people that are saying we need to completely ban abortion, they have no sense of reality. This is a democracy. People get to vote and if you campaign on things that they don't want, they vote against you and you have no power, you have to have power before you can get anything done. And if you want to talk about, you know, banning all abortions, that's great but you're not going to get power to change anything. The abolitionist movement, right? When we were ending slavery, there were lots of compromises made. There were, it was a methodical, you know, step-by-step approach to limiting the power of the slaveholders. And we have to have a very similar strategy here if we're ever going to protect the unborn.
You're not in reality. Democracy is about the people. If the people don't support something, you - you're not going to get power if you run on it. And this is something that a lot of people feel very strongly about. I don't understand why we wouldn't take the gains and protect the babies that we have right now. The house is on fire and it's - how I view this is if you had a house on fire and there are 10 kids inside and you can only save three. Why would you let the whole house burn down and all 10 kids get killed when you can save those three kids? Let's save the three kids. And then figure out if there's a way to save the rest, this is not an all-or-nothing approach, it cannot be, it can't be. And if you're gonna have that mindset, well, you're going to lead to a lot more babies being killed than you realize.