Republican politicians have faced the same fundamental dilemma for decades: how to make pro-life voters cheer while giving them next to nothing?

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance mastered the move — and it accounts for no small part of their larger political dominance. 

Consider the events of last week. 

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order expanding access to in vitro fertilization. In fulfillment of a campaign promise, the order made IVF more affordable and accessible.

The pro-life movement, which holds that life begins at conception, stands firmly opposed to IVF because the process destroys, discards, and, in some cases, freezes human life indefinitely.

Then, only two days later, at CPAC, Vance discoursed eloquently about many conservative values, including the need to defend life at all stages.

“We’ve got to persuade our fellow citizens to stop thinking about babies as inconveniences to be discarded,” he told the adoring crowd. “We’ve got to start thinking about them as blessings to cherish.”

The CPAC crowd, presumably filled with pro-lifers, erupted in applause and chanted, “JD! JD JD!”

Prominent pro-life figures erupted similarly on X. 

“Vance nailed it — calling life sacred and tying it to faith is exactly what the movement needs to hear from leadership,” wrote Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

LifeNews wrote, “Love this pro-life leadership!” 

Esteemed Catholic academic Patrick Deneen lent his considerable gravitas to gloss over the contradiction, “Vance at CPAC: ‘Every child is sacred.’ This is not just politics—it’s a moral anthropology we’ve lost. Good to hear from a Catholic VP.”

Of course, not all pro-life reactions were as eagerly forgiving. But Vance’s ability to make the pro-life world cheer only 48 hours removed from the IVF order spoke volumes.

Not long ago, a Republican politician would have paid a hefty price for crossing pro-life so brazenly. But Trump and Vance always seem to get a standing applause no matter what they do. 

It’s far from the first time Trump and Vance have suffered no consequences for promoting anti-life causes. 

In August, Vance promised CBS’s Margaret Brennan (yes, that Margaret) that he and Trump wouldn’t block access to the abortion pill, saying, “Of course want to make sure that any medicine is safe, and it’s prescribed in the right way, and so forth.”

That same month, Trump said he was “against” Florida’s abortion law, saying, “I think the six-week (ban) is too short — it has to be more time. I told them I want more weeks.”

Weeks later, Trump even adopted the euphemisms of the pro-abort movement, pledging his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”

Of course, there is a delicate balancing act to play in promoting the cause of life. There’s a difference between speaking the truth and convincing people. And now more than ever, the pro-life movement needs to be making converts. That’s because the cause of life isn’t experiencing a golden age, as some might have you believe. It’s in the midst of a dark age. 

In addition to the Trump-Vance administration’s full embrace of IVF, the pro-life movement has been beaten soundly at the polls. There have been 17 state ballot measures on abortion voted on since Dobbs v. Jackson returned the matter to the people, and the pro-life cause has lost 15 of them — 16 if you count Florida’s Amendment 4, which failed despite winning 56% of the vote in a state that required 60% to enshrine abortion rights into the Constitution. 

Vance’s larger point that we must work to persuade the culture is well taken, but that doesn’t give his administration license to advocate a “medical procedure” that destroys life. Many would defend Vance here by insisting he is “playing the long game” on abortion and that his heart is in the right place. I hope that’s true.

On Friday, he will speak at the Catholic Prayer Breakfast, which he was invited to despite accusing the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops of bolstering its “bottom line” through its Refugee and Migration services. 

Here’s a prediction: He will make a beautiful case for life, the family, and other core tenets of Western civilization because that’s what he does. And conservative pundits will stand and cheer because that’s what they do. 

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But what of the lives discarded through the procedure his administration now promotes? What of the babies killed by the abortion pill? 

Where are they in all of this?