For now, Trump won’t support a national abortion ban; he says it should be left up to the states

Former president Donald Trump said Monday that his policy on abortion is that the individual states in the country should make that decision, which means he wouldn’t be endorsing a federal ban on the procedure. In effect, he’s calling for the abortion issue to remain status quo, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.

It was a surprise announcement, considering that Trump told a New York City radio station last month that he was open to supporting a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” he said in a video posted on his Truth Social channel. “Many states will have a different number of weeks, some will be more conservative than others and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith.”

Trump, who is a candidate for president, added that “like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

And he went on to bash Democrats as having a “radical” position on abortion rights because they don’t favor restrictions on when a woman can have an abortion.

Trump also boasted as he has in the past that he was “proudly the person responsible for” overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized a federal right to an abortion.

He went on to name all six conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court – John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch as “incredible people for having the courage to allow this long-term hard-fought battle to finally end.”

Trump selected Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett to serve on the court during his one term as president.

There are 14 states in the U.S. who ban abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

In Florida, Trump’s home state, women will not be able to get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy beginning on May 1, following the Florida Supreme Court decision last week . The Court also voted 4-3 to allow the voters to decide in November whether to amend the state’s Constitution to protect access to the procedure up until viability.

Trump’s announcement was blasted by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion group.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Marjorie Dannelfelser, the group’s president, in a written statement.

“Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act. Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights.”

The Biden-Harris campaign team also released a statement this morning in response to Trump’s comments.

“Donald Trump made it clear once again today that he is – more than anyone in America – the person responsible for ending Roe v. Wade. He is – more than anyone in America – responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision,” said President Biden.

President Joe Biden went on to say:

“Trump once said women must be punished for seeking reproductive health care – and he’s gotten his wish. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and left to travel hundreds of miles for health care.

“In states like Florida, abortion will likely soon be illegal before many women know they’re pregnant. Because of Donald Trump, one in three women in America already live under extreme and dangerous bans that put their lives at risk and threaten doctors with prosecution for doing their jobs. And that is only going to get worse.

“With all his empty words on fertility treatments, Trump doesn’t tell you the MAGA Republicans he controls in Congress have put forward bills that could ban fertility treatments and that the Speaker of the House he empowered is one of the strongest supporters for a national abortion ban in the nation. Let there be no illusion. If Donald Trump is elected and the MAGA Republicans in Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law.”