Trump says abortion is up to the states, declines to endorse national limit
His announcement is likely to disappoint anti-abortion groups after his campaign floated a 15-week ban earlier this year.
Former President Donald Trump on Monday said abortion should be left to the states in the post-Roe era, declining to endorse any national limit on the procedure.
His announcement, shared on Truth Social, is likely to disappoint anti-abortion groups who hoped he would use his bully pulpit to endorse national restrictions on abortion, especially after his campaign floated a 15-week ban earlier this year. Trump instead said that it was “up to the states to do the right thing” on abortion, painting Democrats as “radical” on the issue.
“The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” Trump said. “Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks, or 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.”
The announcement highlights Trump’s recognition that abortion has dogged Republicans on the campaign trail since the fall of Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago — and his primary goal of winning the 2024 election. He has chided other Republicans for speaking “inaccurately” on abortion, intimating that severe restrictions have cost the GOP winnable elections. On Sunday night and again Monday morning he urged people to “follow their heart” or their religion but encouraged voters to remember the stakes.
“You must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline,” Trump said.
His comments drew a swift rebuke from one of the nation’s leading anti-abortion rights groups, which has urged Trump to endorse a 15-week federal law.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a statement to POLITICO reiterated the group’s commitment to “defeat President Biden” and congressional Democrats, but condemned Trump’s decision.
“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Dannenfelser, who last week said she believed he would call for a 15-week national limit. “Saying the issue is ‘back to the states,’” Dannenfesler continued, “cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy.”
The former president began his message by stressing support for in vitro fertilization in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court decision earlier this year ruling that frozen embryos are children. That ruling caused a political backlash that had many Republicans scrambling for a politically palatable fix. Trump praised the GOP-controlled legislature for approving a bill protecting IVF — another position that puts the former president at odds with the anti-abortion movement.
Trump’s video comes after months of speculation over what position the former president would take and amid a Democratic campaign that is intensely focused on abortion-rights.
A Fox News poll last month found that support for abortion being legal in all or most cases has risen sharply among voters since the fall of Roe, including among key demographics Trump needs to win in November, such as older Americans, self-identified conservatives, registered Republicans and white evangelical Christians. Republican support, for instance, increased from 24 percent to 36 percent in less than two years.
The position reflects Trump’s long-stated desire to find a compromise on the issue that would appeal to a broad swath of voters. Trump had promised that he would “come together with all groups” to negotiate a deal on abortion that would “make both sides happy” and establish peace on the issue for the first time in more than five decades. But he offered varying ideas, both publicly and privately, about what such a policy position on abortion might look like.
Throughout the Republican presidential primary, Trump maintained that the issue was one for the states to decide, and even criticized states, like his own residence of Florida, that had approved six-week abortion bans. Iowa is also among the states that have passed narrow six-week abortion laws, yet Trump easily defeated his Republican primary challengers there who had endorsed more restrictive laws.
Trump on Monday did not say how he intended to vote on an upcoming ballot initiative in Florida, which would guarantee the right to an abortion up to roughly 24 weeks. The state’s six-week law is set to take effect May 1.
And Trump for the last year has faced pressure from anti-abortion rights groups to endorse a 15-week federal limit, with top officials from those groups privately, and later publicly, suggesting that they believed Trump would come around and adopt their position. His own aides, meanwhile, have offered a range of suggestions about how to approach the issue.
Trump during a radio interview in March floated support for a 15-week limit, saying the number seemed to be one “people are agreeing” on, despite his campaign vociferously denying reports the former president had privately expressed support for a 16-week law a month earlier.
President Joe Biden didn’t immediately comment on Trump’s announcement, though a spokesperson for his reelection campaign said Trump was “endorsing every single abortion ban in the states,” including states without exceptions, and “bragging about his role in creating this hellscape.”