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Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview that the decision about whether to prosecute women for abortions or whether to monitor their pregnancies should be left up to the states. He declined to comment on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been embroiled in an intense legal battle.
In an interview published Tuesday in Time magazine, Trump responded to questions about how he would handle various issues related to abortion if he were elected by saying that it should be left to the states.
“A federal ban is not necessary,” said the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. “The ruling in Roe v. Wade…was not so much about abortion, but about returning authority to the states. Thus, states could negotiate agreements. “Florida will be different from Georgia, and Georgia will be different from other places.”
When asked if he would veto a bill imposing a federal ban, he reiterated: “It's about states' rights”; and he said that opportunity will never arise because Republicans, even if they take back the Senate in November, would not have the 60 votes needed to overcome delaying maneuvers and put the bill to a vote.
Trump repeated his consistent response about the authority of states when asked if they should monitor women's pregnancies so the government would know if they had abortions. Amid debates about the criminalization of women for abortions, even those who manage their pregnancies themselves with medication, experts have warned about how modern surveillance technologies could help federal law enforcement agencies track and investigate abortions.
When asked whether a woman should be punished for having an abortion after a state has banned or restricted the procedure, Trump also responded that it will depend on the states.
“The states will make that decision,” Trump said. “The states will have to feel comfortable or uncomfortable, not me.”
Democrats recently revisited comments Trump made in 2016, when he noted that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions.
Abortion is a central campaign issue in the 2024 presidential election, so Trump is seeking a more cautious stance on the issue, which has become a vulnerability for Republicans and has boosted the vote for Democrats. Trump's leaving the issue up to individual states has drawn criticism from Democrats, as well as conservatives and anti-abortion groups seeking a federal ban.
The national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, which supports a nationwide ban, said in a statement that it was “disappointed by President Trump's stance on leaving a human rights issue up to the states.” The organization also stated that Democrats would abandon delaying tactics to impose their unlimited abortion agenda across the country.
During his term, Trump appointed three justices to the United States Supreme Court who helped him form the majority that invalidated the constitutional right to abortion, and he has attributed that fact to himself during his campaign. Earlier this month, he said he was “proudly the person responsible for ending” the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling.
For his part, President Joe Biden has blamed Trump for a spate of state abortion restrictions that have gone into effect since the ruling was overturned two years ago. His campaign has also warned that a second Trump term could lead to restrictions on abortion across the country. Recently, Biden blamed Trump for the ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy in Florida during campaign events held last week in that state.
