Like many other pro-life Americans, I did not rush to embrace Donald J. Trump when he decided to run for president. Would he make the same pro-life commitments as the other Republican presidential candidates? And if he did, could we trust him? I doubted it.

Shortly after he declared his candidacy, Trump released a statement saying, “I support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and urge Congress to pass this bill. A ban on elective abortions after 20 weeks will protect unborn children. We should not be one of seven countries that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks. It goes against our core values.”

I still questioned his sincerity and seriously doubted he would ever agree to defund America’s largest abortion business Planned Parenthood.

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Soon thereafter Trump told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that he favored defunding Planned Parenthood.

Wallace asked if Trump would be willing to shut down the federal government over the issue of Planned Parenthood funding.

He replied, “I do not want to say that because I want to show unpredictability. You have to. You can't just go around and say that. But Planned Parenthood should absolutely be defunded. I mean if you look at what's going on with that, it's terrible.”

I began to realize that with Trump there was more than meets the eye.

Then again, the crass and demeaning things he said about women often offended me and those women voters our organization sought to mobilize.

At the first Republican primary debate in Cleveland, Ohio in August 2015 I applauded Trump’s statement that he had “evolved” on the issue of abortion and was pro-life, but I cringed when he attacked moderator and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and insulted entertainer Rosie O’Donnell.

I tweeted “Trump — it’s not ok to demean women or anyone.” My three daughters were very much on my mind at that moment.

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Along with several other women leaders, I sent an open letter to voters in Iowa and South Carolina urging them to support anyone but Trump.

“America will only be a great nation when we have leaders of strong character who will defend both unborn children and the dignity of women," we wrote.

"We cannot trust Donald Trump to do either. Therefore we urge our fellow citizens to support an alternative candidate.”

What would a Trump victory mean for our policy goals? What kind of judges could we expect him to appoint?

But then Trump made a decision which put to rest the most urgent concern I and others had about his candidacy — he chose Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.

As a congressman, Pence led the effort to defund Planned Parenthood; as governor of Indiana, he signed a dozen pro-life initiatives into law.

The selection of Pence made it easier to mobilize the grassroots. Trump may have been a recent convert to the pro-life cause, but Mike and Karen Pence had been there from the very beginning.

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I asked for a commitment in writing to our top priorities and sent a draft of a letter to the Trump campaign and waited.

I finally heard from campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, “I’ve talked to Mr. Trump, and he wants to sign,” she said. “But he thinks the letter should be stronger and begin with a description of how terrible Hillary is on life.”

For me, it was very simple. There were two choices: Trump and Clinton.

There were no circumstances under which Hillary Clinton, whose radical views included supporting abortion on demand up to the moment of a baby’s birth, could ever be an acceptable choice.

I couldn’t read Trump’s heart with certainty, but everyone could read his letter, and in it he went further than any previous presidential candidate had gone in explicitly and publicly endorsing a pro-life agenda.

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In his public statements about the life issue during the campaign and his achievements since being in office, Trump has not let the movement down.

From policies that prevent our hard-earned tax dollars from going towards abortions both here and abroad, to reshaping the judiciary with judges who respect the Constitution and life -- and many other accomplishments – he has earned the designation he has today: “the most pro-life president in history.”

Adapted from Chapter 2 of "Life Is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and Their Mothers" (Humanix Books, August 25, 2020) by Marjorie Dannenfelser.