Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday abortion laws should be determined by U.S. states, stopping short of proposing a national ban and choosing a more moderate stance heading into November’s general election.
He made his announcement in a video posted to Truth Social, kicking the issue back to the states.
After starting the video announcement with a discussion of his support for the availability of in-vitro fertilization, Trump shifted to abortion, saying he supported exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.
He did not address the issue of a national ban on abortion.
Trump took credit for the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision and ending a federal right to abortion, alluding to his conservative picks for the U.S. high court that made it possible.
The court’s ruling triggered a voter backlash that was widely credited with curbing Republican gains in the 2022 congressional midterm elections and propelling Democrats to victories in some state elections last year.
“This 50-year battle over Roe v. Wade took it out of the federal hands and brought it into the hearts, minds and vote of the people in each state. It was really something. Now it’s up to the states to do the right thing,” Trump said.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both,” Trump said. “And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”
“At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” Trump said. “Now it’s up to the states to do the right thing.”
He did not specify a week in which he would support a ban on abortion.
Democrat President Joe Biden has made Trump’s opposition to abortion rights a key tenet of his reelection campaign.
“Donald Trump is endorsing every single abortion ban in the states, including abortion bans with no exceptions. And he’s bragging about his role in creating this hellscape,” Ammar Moussa, director of rapid response for the Biden campaign, wrote on the X social media platform on Monday.
Since launching his campaign in late 2022, Trump has largely shied away from the topic of abortion, reflecting the Republican Party’s struggles to articulate a message to reduce the political fallout from the Supreme Court’s ruling.
While Americans tend to accept restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, polls also show that a sizable majority prefer to have the decision made by the patient and her doctor, not the government.
“With Roe v. Wade overturned, leaving abortion to the states is his way of punting on the issue,” said Jeanette Hoffman, a Republican political consultant, about Trump’s stance. “Now that the primary is over, there’s nothing to be gained from proposing a national abortion ban, as he’ll lose support from voters in many swing states.”
The Republican Party has struggled to articulate a message to stanch the political fallout from the 2022 ruling overturning the court’s 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which was made possible by Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the court while president from 2017 to 2021.
While Americans tend to accept restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, polls also show that a sizable majority prefer to have the decision made by the patient and her doctor, not the government.
