WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced a change in his views on abortion laws Monday, releasing a video urging state legislatures to make those decisions rather than Congress — and immediately drew pointed criticism from an influential anti-abortion group that said the issue should remain a national debate.
“My view is that now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it legally, the states will decide by vote or by legislature or maybe both, and whatever they decide has to be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a nearly five-minute speech. video he wrote on social media.
“A lot of states are going to be different, a lot of states are going to have different numbers of weeks, and some are going to be more conservative than others, and that’s just how it’s going to be,” he added. “Ultimately, it’s about the will of the people. You have to follow your heart, and in many cases, your religion or your faith.”
Trump has said he supports exceptions to the abortion ban that would allow termination of a pregnancy in cases of rape, incest or when the patient’s life is at risk.
Trump’s video is a departure from comments he made during the election campaign that he would support a 16-week nationwide ban.
Ammar Moussa, Biden’s campaign director of rapid response, noted Monday that Trump did not decline to support a nationwide ban when the video was released, contrary to reports in some media outlets.
The shift in agenda, coming less than seven months before Election Day, could be seen as Trump’s attempt to appeal to centrist Republicans and undecided voters, particularly women, as Democrats sought to unite supporters around reproductive rights.
Over the past two years, voters in many states approved voting questions which has strengthened support for access to abortion, including in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and ohio.
Several other states, including Arizona AND FloridaQuestions about access to abortion are likely to come up in the November election, along with the election of the president and representation in both houses of Congress.
How abortion became a central issue in the race for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
President Joe Biden said in a statement released by his re-election campaign that “Trump once said that women should be punished for seeking reproductive health care — and he got his wish.”
“Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to get permission to get the medical care they need, and forced to drive hundreds of miles to get health care,” Biden wrote.
“Because of Donald Trump, one in three women in America already lives under extreme and dangerous restrictions that put their lives at risk and threaten doctors with prosecution for doing their job,” Biden added. “And that’s only going to get worse.”
“Deeply disappointed”
Anti-abortion groups were quick to express their displeasure with Trump’s latest campaign stance, while reproductive rights groups questioned its veracity.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement that the organization was “deeply disappointed with President Trump’s position” and reiterated that “the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”
“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ gives the national debate to Democrats, who are working tirelessly to pass legislation mandating abortion for all nine months of pregnancy,” Dannenfelser wrote. “If they have their way, they will wipe out states’ rights.”
South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham also broke with Trump on the issue, writing in a statement that “the pro-life movement has always been about the well-being of the unborn child — not geography.”
Graham, a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would continue to push for a nationwide ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the life of the pregnant patient.
Graham wrote that until he gets the votes needed to pass the bill through Congress, he will push for passage of a law “requiring abortion providers to administer anesthesia to the unborn child at fifteen weeks of gestation.”
Abortion rights advocates were highly critical. Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement that she did not believe Trump’s comments in the video, calling him a “liar.”
“He knows that publicly supporting bans loses voters, which is why he has spread dangerous misinformation about abortion to distract from the truth about what he will do if elected,” Timmaraju wrote.
“He is responsible for the damage and chaos caused by Republican abortion bans in the states, and all he says is he wants more of it,” Timmaraju added. “The stakes couldn’t be higher, and we need to elect a reproductive freedom majority in Congress and send President Biden and Vice President Harris back to the White House to restore federal abortion rights and expand access.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, expressed doubt that Trump would maintain his position for much longer, saying in a statement: “Let’s wait a few weeks and see what his new position is.”
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager, said Monday afternoon on a call with reporters that Trump’s video shows “his support for these radical bans and he’s made it clear that he would support these bans in all 50 states.”
“Make no mistake, leaving this up to the states is an endorsement of cruel and dangerous abortion bans across the country that have only been made possible by Donald Trump,” Rodriguez said.
Abortion bans currently in effect in Republican states sometimes exclude cases of rape and incest and can go into effect before a woman knows she is pregnant, Rodriguez said.
Decision on abortion
Trump was president before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to abortion, established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade and upheld in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Conservative judges on the court they wrote in their ruling ending nationwide protections that “the power to regulate abortion returns to
“the people and their elected representatives.”
That would apply to Congress if lawmakers decide to pass nationwide legislation. Trump did not say in the recording whether he would veto such a bill or seek to prevent it from reaching his desk if he were reelected president and had a Republican-controlled Congress.
In a video, Trump personally thanked the conservative Supreme Court justices who struck down abortion rights and said he was “proud to be responsible” for the ruling.
Trump did not comment in the video on whether he would seek enforcement. Anti-Obscenity Law of 1873 that many abortion opponents believe this could lead to a ban on the shipment of abortion drugs.
The Comstock Act, as it is called, reached the U.S. Supreme Court in slow March when the judges listened to oral arguments regarding access to mifepristone, one of two pharmaceutical agents used in medical abortions.
The law has not been enforced for decades, but it prohibits the sending of “Any article or thing designed, adapted, or intended to be used to induce an abortion or for any indecent or immoral use.”
Trump and in vitro fertilization
Trump also addressed the issue of access to in vitro fertilization in his video, saying the Republican Party “wants to make it easier for mothers and families to have children, not harder.”
“That includes supporting the availability of infertility treatments like in vitro fertilization in every state in America,” Trump said, later adding that he “strongly supports the availability of in vitro fertilization for couples who are trying to have a precious child.”
Trump thanked Alabama lawmakers for establishing civil and criminal protection for in vitro fertilization clinics to resume treatment following the state Supreme Court ruling he ruled that frozen embryos are children.
While many IVF clinics in the state have resumed operations following the modern law, an IVF clinic in Mobile, Alabama, reported that will end at the end of the year due to a lawsuit in connection with this process.
“Today, I’m pleased that the Alabama Legislature acted very quickly and passed legislation that preserves the availability of in vitro fertilization in Alabama,” Trump said. “They really did a great job and they did it quickly.”
Trump said the GOP “should always be on the side of the miracle of life and on the side of mothers and fathers and their beautiful children. And that’s who we are.”
“In vitro fertilization is an important part of that, and our great Republican Party will always stand with you as you strive to achieve the ultimate joy in life,” Trump said.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate have blocked two bills that would address access to in vitro fertilization in response to questions about the procedure in Alabama.
Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi in slow February blocked Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth’s efforts to pass legislation that would provide nationwide protections for in vitro fertilization patients and health care providers.
The legislation would prohibit restrictions on “assisted reproductive services” that are “more burdensome than restrictions or requirements imposed on medically comparable procedures, do not substantially improve the reproductive health or safety of such services, and unduly limit access to such services.”
In mid-March, Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford blocked Washington State Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, quickly passed legislation that would expand access to infertility treatments for service members and veterans.
The bill, titled the Veteran Families Health Services Act, would allow service members to freeze their eggs or sperm before they are sent to combat or hazardous assignments. It would also expand access to VA adoption services.
The Capital-Star editorial team assisted in preparing this report.
