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Trump risks losing key voter base with opposition to Arizona abortion law, pro-lifers say
Former President Trump’s opposition to a strict abortion ban in Arizona has put him at odds with pro-life and Christian activists, who represent a voter base key to his presidential election effort.
Last week, the Trump presidential campaign released a statement saying that states should decide how to regulate abortion. Days later, that position was tested when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law banning abortion without exception for rape or incest should be enforced.
Trump, who claims to be the most pro-life president in U.S. history, said the court’s decision “went too far” and urged lawmakers to “ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened.” He said that “ideally” anti-abortion laws must contain exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. In other comments, he expressed confidence that the Arizona law will be “straightened out.”
That message was ill-received by Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist, who leads the group “And Then There Were None.”
TRUMP SAYS ARIZONA PRO-LIFE LAW WENT ‘TOO FAR’ AS BIDEN CAMP CLAIMS POLICY U-TURN
CEO of “And Then There Were None” Abby Johnson speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a hotel in Mexico City, Mexico Nov. 19, 2022. Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview that former President Donald Trump risks alienating pro-life voters by opposing state bans on abortion without exceptions for rape or incest. (Reuters/Luis Cortes)
“What I heard was that [Trump] is a person that does not believe in banning abortion,” Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview. She said there was a conflict between Trump’s position that states should decide for themselves and his statement that Arizona went “too far.”
“So, here was a state that said we’re going to ban abortion. And now he says, ‘well, no, I don’t want you to,’” Johnson said. “That tells me he doesn’t want to ban it at the federal level. But he also doesn’t believe the states should have a right to ban it at the state level.”
It was a disappointing development for Johnson, who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention in support of Trump’s re-election. In her speech, she said Trump “has done more for the unborn than any other president.” She pointed to several of his accomplishments, including reinstating the Mexico City policy — critics call it the “global gag rule” — which blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that support abortion services, as well as appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, making state abortion restrictions possible.
Indeed, Trump takes credit for his pro-life record regularly on the campaign trail. But he has also repeatedly criticized fellow Republicans for taking a hard-line stance on the issue, blaming candidates who did not allow for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the pregnant person is at risk, for the GOP’s setbacks in the 2022 midterm elections.
“A lot of politicians who are pro-life do not know how to discuss this topic, and they lose their election. We had a lot of election losses because of this, because they didn’t know to discuss it. They had no idea,” he said last year at a leadership summit of the Concerned Women of America.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
TRUMP SAYS ABORTION SHOULD BE DECIDED BY THE STATES, ‘WILL OF THE PEOPLE’
Former US President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, US, on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Trump released a statement on abortion rights on April 8, saying that states should be free to decide their own abortion restrictions. (Daniel Steinle/Getty Images)
The pro-life cause has also suffered a handful of defeats on ballot initiatives that enshrined abortion rights protections even in red states like Ohio and Kansas. Similar initiatives in Arizona and Florida, among other states, are expected to drive up turnout in the November election.
William Wolfe, a former Trump official who served in the State and Defense Departments, said those defeats show that “the culture in America still loves abortion, or deeply misunderstands what is happening in an abortion.”
Wolfe is the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership (CBL), a newly-founded nonprofit that exists to revitalize the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), America’s largest Christian protestant denomination. Though the group does not endorse or support political candidates, it released a statement last week that praised Trump for his pro-life record in the White House, but urged him “to forsake the advice of compromising political consultants” as he engages with pro-life voters in his third campaign for the White House.
Demonstrators during a Women’s March rally in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. Pro-choice groups condemned a state Supreme Court decision that said an 1864 law banning most abortions could be enforced. (Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In an interview, Wolfe described the Arizona abortion ban as “a great law” and encouraged Trump to make an “unapologetic moral argument” about how abortion “ends innocent life” and “should be recognized as murder.”
“Evangelicals and Southern Baptists are eager to support candidates who show unflinching courage and make moral arguments against the civilizational suicide that is abortion. I would encourage everybody to stand strong on this issue and run to it and not away from it, because we know that human life is valuable and should be protected from the moment of fertilization until the natural death,” he said.
ARIZONA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN
Walker Wildmon, vice president and spokesman of the American Family Association, said the Arizona Supreme Court ruling was a valid ruling that recognizes the pro-life position, that life begins at conception and should be protected until natural death.
While giving Trump credit for his record, Wildmon said the former president’s most recent statements are “out of line with his party and the entire pro-life movement.”
“Just as slavery was a stain on our country, abortion is also a stain on our country. So in our view, since we believe that every life begins at conception, any abortion is too many abortions,” he said.
Wildmon warned that Trump risks alienating a significant number of Evangelical Christian voters by attempting to appeal to independents or suburban women by watering-down his pro-life stance.
“The reality is that wiggling or squirming on the abortion issue isn’t going to pick him up many voters,” he said. “It will really suppress the Evangelical Christian vote. There’s already Evangelical Christians out there, a large voting bloc in the Republican Party, that have some concerns about President Trump and how he handles things and his self-control.”
He added that Trump “really needs to be moving to the right on this issue” to consolidate his supporters ahead of a general election showdown with President Biden.
BILL MAHER SKEWERS TRUMP, GOP’S SHIFT ON ABORTION: ‘SO KILLING BABIES IS OK IN SOME STATES?’
While Republicans triangulate their position on the issue, Democrats have attempted to portray Trump as the man singularly responsible for stripping away women’s rights.
“Here in Arizona, they have turned the clock back more than a century on women’s rights and freedoms. The overturning of Roe was a seismic event. And this ban in Arizona is one of the biggest aftershocks yet,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at a campaign event in Tuscon on Friday.
She called Trump “the architect of this health care crisis” and argued a second Trump term would mean “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs gives a brief speech prior to President Joe Biden’s remarks at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Sept. 28, 2023 in Tempe, Arizona. Hobbs has called on the Arizona legislature to repeal the 1864 ban. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, said Trump appears mindful that far-reaching laws that restrict abortion access could make his re-election difficult. He and the other pro-life activists interviewed for this story emphasized that Trump remains the best alternative to President Biden for pro-life voters in the upcoming election.
“Trump may hold the position that, under the circumstances, states shouldn’t go that far. And he’s certainly entitled to that position. I believe he’s wrong on that, but that’s a far-cry from Joe Biden, who is saying he’s willing to impose a nationwide abortion at any stage, for any reason, paid-for-by-taxpayers regime on the country,” Burch told Fox News Digital.
Still, Johnson said that many pro-life activists she’s met with have told her Trump has lost their votes with his criticisms of the Arizona law and Florida’s six-week abortion ban. “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to go cast their vote for Biden, but they are not going to vote for Trump” she told Fox News Digital.
“I think that just saying that you’re pro-life is not going to be good enough anymore for some pro-life voters,” Johnson added. “And so while I think there’s a lot of people who are waiting to see, and I’m one of those people who are waiting to see if Trump is going to right this ship, I think that he does need to be very careful with how he moves forward between now and the election.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
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Nancy Guthrie neighbors’ Ring camera captures vehicles on possible route from crime scene
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EXCLUSIVE: TUCSON, Ariz. — A resident in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood has a street-facing Ring camera that caught 12 cars passing by on the morning of Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction.
The recordings took place between midnight and 6 a.m. on Feb. 1, and some of the activity occurred near the 2:30 a.m. mark, which is around the time authorities said the 84-year-old Guthrie’s pacemaker device last synced with her iPhone.
The homeowners, Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas, told Fox News Digital that police had not canvassed their neighborhood in the 25 days since Guthrie is believed to have been taken from her bed in a home invasion kidnapping. The FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been alerted to the video. It was not immediately clear whether the video is of any use to the investigation or whether the vehicle had ever been on Guthrie’s street.
Guthrie is the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, a Tucson native.
Left: A still image from Ring camera video shows a vehicle passing a home near Nancy Guthrie’s on Feb. 1, the morning she is believed to have been abducted. Right: Nancy in an undated family photo. (Courtesy of Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas, Courtesy of NBC)
The Stratigouleas house is on a back road that leads out of Guthrie’s neighborhood, avoiding major intersections. And they live about 2.5 miles away from the crime scene, which is outside the 2-mile radius of neighbors who received a Ring alert asking for video taken from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2.
Their house is roughly a seven-minute drive from Guthrie’s address, according to Google Maps. One of their videos was recorded at around 2:36 a.m. on Feb. 1, which is roughly eight minutes after Guthrie’s pacemaker last synced with her iPhone, according to the sheriff’s timeline.
WATCH: Ring video shows vehicles on outskirts of Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood morning of abduction
Danielle Stratigouleas said the number of cars passing that night was not unusual, but she and a friend found it “odd” that no one from law enforcement had visited her neighborhood.
NANCY GUTHRIE SUSPECT’S DIGITAL ‘BLACKOUT’ MAY BE KEY TO CASE, SAYS EXPERT WHO PROBED KOHBERGER PHONE
A map details the neighborhood surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s home on Camino Escalante in Tucson, Arizona, and a secondary route through the Catalina Foothills down Camino Real leading to East River Road. (Fox News)
A Ring camera image taken from video shows a vehicle driving south on Camino Real at 2:36 a.m. on Feb. 1, the morning Nancy Guthrie is believed to have been abducted from a home nearby in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, Arizona. (Courtesy of Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas)
The FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been alerted to the video. It was not immediately clear whether it is of any use to the investigation.
Retired NYPD detective and national security expert Pat Brosnan reviewed the video with his team. He tells Fox News Digital they believe the vehicle seen at 2:36 a.m. is a Kia Soul, based on its slanted roof, window design and rear-quarter glass. He also noted the vertical brake lights.
The rewards are still outstanding, and anyone with information they think may be relevant is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The route itself had been flagged to Fox News Digital by another neighbor — who said she also saw a suspicious man walking in the area on Feb. 2, around the corner from what appeared to be an abandoned car. The young mother asked not to be named due to concerns for her children’s safety amid the unsolved kidnapping investigation.
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WATCH: Path out of Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood avoids major intersections
She described him as about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, Hispanic, with a close-trimmed beard and wearing a silver bracelet. He was smoking a cigarette near the intersection of Camino Juan Paisano and Piedra Seca, which is between Camino Real and Guthrie’s home.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department did not return multiple phone calls and emails about the man or the vehicle, a dark red Honda SUV that the neighbor said was moved after three days.
A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie’s spotted this dark red Honda near Camino Real on Feb. 2, the day after Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction nearby. She told Fox News Digital that it remained in place for a couple of days after deputies examined it. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie’s spotted this dark red Honda near Camino Real on Feb. 2, the day after Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction nearby. She told Fox News Digital it remained in place for about three days before it was moved. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
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Another unidentified man was spotted in mid-January, according to neighbor Aldine Meister.
“He didn’t have your typical walking gear on, and he had his hat pulled really far over his eyes,” she told Fox News Digital.
She said she saw the man walking in the neighborhood, near an intersection leading to Guthrie’s home — and hadn’t encountered him before or after.
Deputies examine a flyer taped to Nancy Guthrie’s mailbox on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“He was kind of younger, and he just didn’t look like he was going out for a walk,” she added.
She mentioned it to her husband but did not report it to investigators until after Guthrie’s disappearance.
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FBI agents canvass homes near Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Danielle Stratigouleas told Fox News Digital that she did see deputies searching what locals call a wash, a common terrain feature in the region, near her office, which is on Skyline Drive, another main road that borders Guthrie’s development.
North Campbell, which was extensively searched by authorities and volunteers, connects to both main arteries. Camino Real connects only to East River Road.
“I think it sounds smart, and if they even sort of knew the area or actually cased the area beforehand, that road behind Camino Real called Camino Escuela would be an even better idea,” she told Fox News Digital. “There’s never anybody on it, and never a police car to be seen.”
Fox News Digital approached five other homes with street-facing cameras on Camino Real. Three of the homeowners said they had not been visited by law enforcement, either. No one answered the door at the other two.
None said they had any notable video from Feb. 1.
Campbell also runs past the University of Arizona and is a much busier road, she said.
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An undated photo of Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie was provided by NBC in response to the disappearance of the 84-year-old. (Courtesy of NBC)
“It’s always buzzing even on a Saturday night,” she added. “Camino La Brinca and Camino Piedra Seca also lead to Camino Real, and they’re a good way to get from Camino Zorella.”
The residents said they’re hoping more people outside the radius will check their cameras and submit anything that could help the FBI.
Guthrie is believed to have been forcibly abducted from her home on North Camino Escalante, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
In more than three weeks, police have not publicly identified any suspects, persons of interest or vehicles connected to the case. They briefly detained but later released several people and have towed multiple vehicles, including those belonging to family members and the detainees.
No one has been charged with a crime as of Thursday morning, however.
Exterior view of the front entrance of Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Arizona, Tuesday, February 3, 2026. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
The FBI and Google teamed up to recover doorbell camera footage even though her Nest device is physically unaccounted for, and she did not have a cloud subscription.
FBI Director Kash Patel released still images and video on Feb. 10.
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The video shows a masked individual with gloves on, prowling on her front porch.
These two images were released by the FBI, recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera. It’s unclear whether they show the same person. (FBI)
According to two sources with knowledge of the investigation, one of the doorbell images was taken on a different date than the others. It shows an individual who may be the same masked intruder at Guthrie’s doorstep, without an Ozark Trail backpack or holstered pistol.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has called the timeline surrounding the images speculation.
Savannah Guthrie is asking anyone with information in the case to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI or contact her directly.
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Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
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A Texas-based career criminal with a lengthy rap sheet is behind bars in Travis County after he was charged with murdering a father of five outside a 7-Eleven in Austin, reviving scrutiny of Travis County District Attorney José Garza and what critics call his controversial prosecutorial record and “soft on crime” approach.
Caleb Anthony Jenkins, described by police as a career criminal, was charged with murder in connection with a shooting last year that left a 25-year-old father dead outside a 7-Eleven. According to Austin police, Jenkins allegedly shot the victim and drove off.
But critics argue the killing may have been preventable. Garza’s office previously dismissed or declined to prosecute three separate gun charges against Jenkins in incidents dating back to 2022. He was also arrested in 2023 on a domestic violence charge and failed to appear in court, as Fox News reported. Most recently, he was re-arrested and released after his bond was raised.
Taken together, the developments have intensified public criticism of Garza, the Democratic district attorney backed by liberal mega-donor George Soros,
District Attorney Jose Garza in Austin, Texas. (Spencer Selvidge for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Garza, who was elected Travis County DA without prior experience as a prosecutor, has faced criticism from police advocacy groups and victims’ families since taking office. They have accused him of deliberately slow-walking certain cases and embracing lenient sentencing policies.
The criticism has sparked national attention in years past. In 2023, the family of 25-year-old Doug Cantor, who was shot and killed in the 2021 Sixth Street mass shooting in downtown Austin, criticized Garza for slow-walking the trial of the gunman.
Family members told Fox News Digital in an interview at the time that they believed Garza had put the case on the “back burner.”
“It’s very clear that his focus and attention is not on this case,” Nick Kantor told Fox News Digital in an interview reflecting on the two-year anniversary of his brother’s death — and the way Garza, who has been widely criticized for soft-on-crime policies, has handled the case.
AUSTIN DA GARZA CREATES CONFUSION WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF IMPENDING INDICTMENTS AGAINST MULTIPLE POLICE OFFICERS
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza poses in front of the Austin skyline in a portrait from the county website. Garza has faced criticism for accusations that he aggressively prosecutes police officers accused of wrongdoing while going easy on career criminals. (Travis County DA Website)
“He’s doing things that are clearly causing distress on the trial and on the overall outcome of the case and for getting justice for my brother,” Kantor said.
Other victims’ families cited similar behavior from Garza’s office in interviews with Fox News Digital.
While overall reported crime in Travis County has declined, opponents argue dismissal rates have been “political,” and could further endanger public safety.
It “appears that Garza has now become more of an advocate for the criminal than he has for the victim,” Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Police Retired Officer’s Association, previously told Fox News Digital.
“The prosecution is acting more like defense attorneys than they are prosecutors,” Farris said in an interview roughly one year after Garza took office. “Whatever his skewed view of what criminal justice reform is, it isn’t working. It sure isn’t working for the victims.”
CRIME EXPERTS RESPOND TO SOROS DEFENDING SUPPORT FOR PROGRESSIVE DAS AMID CRIME WAVE: ‘DISASTROUS’
George Soros delivers a speech at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
“It used to be that they got the victims’ buy-in before offering plea bargains. Now it doesn’t appear he’s even doing that, because they’re not even communicating with them, and that’s what’s leading to the revictimization of these families.”
Current and former local law enforcement officers have criticized Garza’s actions and his alleged “war on cops,” after the Soros-backed district attorney campaigned on indicting police officers and “reimagining” policing in Austin.
Soros contributed $652,000 to the Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC in the months leading up to the 2020 Travis County DA election, according to campaign finance records.
That same PAC spent almost $1 million on digital and mail advertisements to help Garza’s campaign, as Fox News reported.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Jasmine Crockett campaign reportedly kicked Atlantic writer out of rally for being a ‘top-notch hater’
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Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey reported that she was “thrown out” of a rally for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, for being a “top-notch hater” according to Crockett’s team.
“Right before armed guards escorted me from the rally and left me on the edge of a Texas-county road, I was informed that I was no longer welcome at an event that I had already attended,” Godfrey wrote on Thursday.
She described having spent an hour at the Lubbock rally for Crockett’s Senate campaign before being approached by a woman with a badge as soon as she joined other reporters.
Elaine Godfrey claimed Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s team removed her from a rally in Texas earlier this week. (Dustin Franz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“‘Are you Elaine?’ she asked. I recognized her from the entrance of the event, where I had identified myself as she’d waved me into the building’s press area. Yes, I answered. ‘Her team has asked you to leave,’ she said. When I asked why, the staffer looked at her phone and read dutifully: ‘They just said, “Elaine from Atlantic, White girl with a hat and notepad. She’s interviewing people in the crowd. She’s a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave,”’” Godfrey wrote.
Godfrey was the staff writer behind a profile piece for Crockett in July that reportedly received backlash from the Texas representative after including comments from fellow House Democrats “without telling her first.”
“She was, she told me, ‘shutting down the profile and revoking all permissions,’” Godfrey wrote at the time.
BOEBERT JOKES ABOUT ENDORSING CROCKETT IN TEXAS’ SENATE RACE TO GIVE HER DEMOCRATIC RIVAL A BOOST
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. (LM Otero/AP Photo)
The piece was still published and included comments from other Democratic figures.
According to Godfrey, Crockett said that there was “no evidence” that a reporter was removed from her rally but claimed that there was a “specific journalist” who has a “history of being less than truthful” and had previously lost a lawsuit against Crockett.
“Perhaps she was thinking of someone else, because that’s not something that has ever happened to me,” Godfrey wrote.
CROCKETT DISPUTES OPPONENT’S DENIAL OF ‘MEDIOCRE BLACK MAN’ COMMENT, CALLS OUT ‘WELL-INTENTIONED WHITE FOLK’
Godfrey added that her removal from the rally wasn’t a surprise considering Crockett’s firebrand-style of politics, though she expressed concern over how she was handled.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett allegedly tried to shut down an article from Elaine Godfrey after she spoke to other House Democrats. (Bob Daemmrich/The Texas Tribune/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“As security guards began to materialize around me, I wondered to myself what distinguished a top-notch hater from a middling one. I agreed to leave, and four guards, including at least one who was armed, escorted me out of the building, through the parking lot, and right to the edge of the nearby highway, where they waited as I ordered a car,” Godfrey wrote.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett’s office and campaign for comment.
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