Family Research Council President Tony Perkins defended potential Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Monday’s edition of his Washington Watch radio show, and affirmed his faith in President Trump, “who has been more outspoken than any other president in history on the sanctity of human life,” to give the court an anti-choice majority.
Though Barrett’s record on women’s choice, the ACA, and race have been a focus of progressive criticism, Perkins contended that Judge Barrett has been attacked for being “too religious” and scoffed that the left will likely condemn her “for being a mother of seven.”
In conversation with Terry Jeffrey, the Editor in Chief of CNS, Perkins argued that Trump should select a judicial nominee that will vote with conservative originalists to protect “the constitutional right to life” and that “Democrats are going to lose on this issue.”
“I think it will be a very big issue,” Perkins said in regards to abortion rights. “I don’t think the left should pick this fight, because it is not one they can win […] I don’t see Donald Trump going wobbly [on this]. That’s not in his nature.”
Perkins said that he was surprised with the left’s fascination with abortion; he said that freedom of speech and religion were more controversial issues and that there was a growing consensus condemning abortion.
During the show, Jeffrey cited a Gallup poll from this year to argue that nearly 70% believe in outlawing or limiting abortion. He and Perkins concluded that the majority are ready to prohibit it. In actuality, according to the poll, only 18% of Americans are in favor of making abortion illegal in all cases. The Public Religion Research Institute reported earlier this year that 54 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
