Former President Donald Trump said on April 8 that decisions on abortion restrictions should be left to states, as he declined to back a national-level limit.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, 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 Truth Social, his social media platform.
“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have 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.”
President Trump said to Republicans, “You must follow your hearts on this issue, but remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and in fact to save our country.”
The former president also said he supports fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, or IVF.
President Trump had promised to disclose his stance on “abortion and abortion rights” as a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy is set to take effect in Florida, his home state. Florida residents will vote in November on a ballot initiative that would allow abortions through roughly 26 weeks of gestation. When he was president, President Trump supported a 20-week national ban. While campaigning, he has criticized six-week bans.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said President Trump’s position was disappointing.
“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,” she said in a statement.
“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,” Ms. Dannenfelser said.
Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for President Trump’s 2024 campaign, said on Newsmax that he “supports the rights of states to decide on this issue.”
“He wants the people to have the say,” she said. “He wants it to be up to the will of the people.”
Since the Dobbs decision, many Democrat-led states have passed laws enshrining access to abortions, while many Republican-led ones have approved legislation banning or severely limiting the procedure.
Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said that President Trump “by endorsing state limits, supports the most extreme bans in the nation.”
President Biden has repeatedly said he supports women getting abortions, and he opposed the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Here’s what Donald Trump doesn’t understand: When he ripped away Roe v. Wade, he ripped away a fundamental right for the women of America,” President Biden said on April 8.
He noted later that if a law he supports is passed by Congress, “the fundamental right to choose for women will once again be the law of land.”
Most voters and many lawmakers favor allowing abortions early in pregnancy but placing some type of limits on them, according to surveys. Some Democrats are against any limits while some Republicans favor total bans.
A majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives this year said they support a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
President Trump previously suggested that may be appropriate.
“The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15. And I’m thinking in terms of that,“ he said in a recent radio interview. ”And it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable. But people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.”
Voters and lawmakers also have differing views on whether there should be exceptions to bans and in which scenarios exceptions should be available. Common exceptions include cases of incest.
President Trump said over the weekend that “Republicans, and all others, must follow their hearts and minds, but remember that, like Ronald Reagan before me, I, and most other Republicans, believe in EXCEPTIONS for Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother.”
