The political influence of Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council in shaping the anti-abortion movement, particularly in the context of the 2024 election, and the group's strategies and the potential implications for reproductive rights under a Trump-led Republican party.
This year’s annual conclave of that faction was defined by two central paradoxes, noted People for the American Way researcher Peter Montgomery. The first was that even as speakers conveyed a sense of persecution that, Montgomery told me, “has been core to the movement’s organizing strategy since it started,” the Christian right stills control the Supreme Court—not to mention school boards, attorneys general offices, and state legislatures across America. Indeed, they are so confident in their power to impose their minority view that, as Montgomery has reported, the American Family Association’s Phillip Jauregui stood on the main stage and outlined how Republican presidents should demand that future Supreme Court justices adhere to a “biblical worldview” that, by this faction’s own admittance, represents only a tiny percentage of the population. The second paradox is that even as leaders expressed their frustration with Trump, they still pledged to vote for him.
