Add abortion, birth control to Trump hypocrisies

abstinence.

‘‘But if Democrats gained power? They will try to reverse these incredible gains. These are historic gains,’’ Trump warned his audience last week. It was a gala sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion group that claims it’s following the will of the great feminist founding mother.

There’s actually no real indication of what Susan B. Anthony thought about the subject.

It’s highly, highly unlikely that Trump ever mulled this matter. Last year, when the White House held a celebration for Women’s History Month, he asked his guests if they had ever heard of Susan B. Anthony, as if he was delivering exciting new information. It was sort of like asking a gathering of Republican business leaders, ‘‘Have you ever heard of Ronald Reagan?’’ But never mind.

Whenever the president’s war on choice comes up, you can’t help wondering whether during his bachelor days — and OK, his adultery days — Trump didn’t at some point send a partner off to have her pregnancy terminated. We do know from Stormy Daniels that he’s not all that careful when it comes to condoms.

Maureen Dowd once asked Trump whether he was ‘‘ever involved with anyone who had an abortion?’’

‘‘Such an interesting question,’’ he responded. ‘‘So what’s your next question?’’

There was also a 2004 interview in which Trump said that when his girlfriend, Marla Maples, told him she was pregnant, he rejoined, ‘‘Well, what are we going to do about this?’’ Which did not sound like an invitation to go shop for cribs.

You have to ask yourself if Trump has ever examined his own true feelings about abortion. It certainly didn’t seem to be uppermost in his mind at last week’s speech, when he kept veering off onto other subjects. Including, of course, reminding the crowd that he had won the election in 2016. (‘‘That beautiful, beautiful evening. November. Remember that evening? Could it have been more beautiful?’’)

If he thinks about reproductive rights at all, it has less to do with biology or ethics than with his beloved Base, which currently needs to be roused for the fall elections.

‘‘Your vote in 2018 is every bit as important as your vote in 2016,’’ he read from his prepared text. Then added, ‘‘Although I’m not sure I really believe that.’’ No, nothing is as important as Donald Trump winning the presidency. The signing of the Declaration of Independence, two world wars, the invention of the printing press ... details, details.

Back in the day, Trump liked to point out that he hated ‘‘the concept of abortion,’’ before adding, ‘‘I just believe in choice.’’ That, of course, was totally reasonable. The goal of groups like Planned Parenthood is to help women have children when they want them and avoid getting pregnant when they don’t. And when a woman seeks abortion, to make it safe and readily available in order to avoid those late-term procedures Trump has now discovered he hates so much.

Hardly likely he’s given all that much thought. This is the guy, after all, who had two meetings with Bill Gates and asked at both whether there was a difference between HIV and HPV.