Social conservatives push Trump to back federal role on abortion

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - A leading U.S. anti-abortion group on Tuesday warned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump not to water down language in the party platform on abortion restrictions, the most visible sign yet of a widening fissure between Trump and social conservatives on the issue.

The reproach by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser comes as party members head to Milwaukee to draft the platform, which serves as a statement of policy principles, ahead of what is intended to be a national show of unity at the party's convention this month.

For weeks, anti-abortion activists have been expressing concerns that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee would work to weaken language in the platform by eliminating any reference to a federal role in restricting abortion.

Trump has said the issue should be left solely to state legislatures in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that gutted constitutional protection for the procedure. He has argued that is a more politically tenable position, with polls showing a majority of Americans broadly backing abortion rights.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dannenfelser said the longtime, battle-tested alliance between the grassroots anti-abortion movement and the Republican, or GOP, Party was in jeopard...
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