Donald Trump on Monday announced his belief that individual US states should decide the legality of abortion – and he declined to endorse a national ban on the procedure.
The former president’s stated position dashed hopes from anti-abortion groups that he would call for a ban on aborting pregnancies beyond 15 weeks.
“States will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both,” Trump said in a video post on Truth Social. “Whatever they decide must be the law of the land, or in this case the law of the state.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, some will be more conservative then others. At the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or faith,” he said in a four-minute address outlining his view of reproductive rights in the wake of the US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022.
He added, “Do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself.”
Besides saying that it was “up to the states to do the right thing”, Trump sought to portray Democrats as “radical” for opposing abortion access restrictions. He made that assertion despite public polling showing that a majority of Americans generally favor access to abortion.
Trump for more than a year now has declined to say when in a pregnancy he would try to draw the line, even as Republican-led states have ushered in a wave of new restrictions after the elimination of the federal rights once granted under Roe v Wade.
His announcement was expected to be closely examined both by Democrats who believe the fight over abortion rights helps them at the polls and Republicans who failed to push Trump to endorse a national abortion ban during their party’s primary.
Trump had long argued that the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe gave those who oppose abortion rights “tremendous power to negotiate”.
He said he wanted to use that leverage to strike a deal that he hoped would “make both sides happy” and bring the country “together” – even though the issue is one of the most contentious in American politics, with opponents viewing abortion as a form of murder and proponents seeing it as a fundamental women’s right.
Trump suggested last month in a radio interview that he was leaning toward supporting a national abortion ban at about 15 weeks of pregnancy – which is early in the second trimester.
“The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15. And I’m thinking in terms of that,” he said on WABC radio. “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.”
At the same time, Trump seemed reluctant to embrace a federal ban.
“Everybody agrees – you’ve heard this for years, all the legal scholars on both sides agree: it’s a state issue. It shouldn’t be a federal issue, it’s a state issue,” he said.
On the campaign trail, Trump has also been ambivalent on abortion. He routinely takes credit for appointing the supreme court justices who set the stage for the elimination of Roe v Wade, which he has called a “moral and unconstitutional atrocity”. He has alo called himself the “most pro-life president in American history”.
But he has also repeatedly dismissed as too extreme fellow Republicans who oppose exceptions to abortion in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. And he has said being too hard-line on the issue cost Republicans at the polls in the 2022 midterms and could do so again when he challenges Joe Biden in November’s presidential election.
The Associated Press contributed reporting