Former President Donald Trump says the states should decide abortion rules ‘by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both.’
Former President Donald Trump said on April 8 that decisions on abortion limitations should be left to states.
“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,” President Trump 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,” he added.
The former president 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.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said that 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.
In its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the earlier Supreme Court precedent that deemed access to abortion a constitutional right.
“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, the national press secretary for President Trump’s 2024 campaign, said on Newsmax that he “supports the rights of states to decide on this issue.”
She added: “He wants the people to have the say. He wants it to be up to the will of the people.”
Since the 2022 Supreme Court 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.
Some Democrat lawmakers favor allowing abortions up until birth. Others favor limits, but are typically against prohibitions.
Many Republicans favor bans after a certain time, such as six weeks.
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.”
Surveys have found majorities of respondents say there should be limits on abortion, but there is division in terms of the timing and in which scenarios exceptions should be available. Common exceptions include cases of incest.
President Trump 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.”
He suggested it would be difficult to win the 2024 election if he came out too strongly against abortion.
President Joe Biden supports access to abortion, he has said.
“President Biden has been clear: he will do everything in his power to fight back and protect reproductive health from these extreme attacks and he will continue to call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law so that women can make their own health care decisions,” the White House said after Republicans called for a national ban at 15 weeks.
