Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday dismissed as “fake news” a report that he was privately considering supporting a 16-week federal abortion ban.
The New York Times reported that Trump told his advisers that a 16-week federal abortion ban would be appropriate as long as it included exceptions for rape, incest or preserving a mother’s life.
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both parties and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,” National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to reporters.
Former US president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally
President Donald Trump remains reluctant to publicly endorse a federal abortion ban
Republicans have suffered repeated political losses on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since then, Trump has remained reluctant to publicly voice his opinion on a federal abortion ban, choosing instead to float the idea of a deal between pro-life and pro-choice activists.
“I would sit down with both sides and negotiate something and then we will reach peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,” he said in an interview with NBC in September when asked about the issue.
In the same interview, Trump criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for signing a six-week abortion ban while then running against the former president for the Republican nomination.
“I think what he did was a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” Trump said at the time.
Trump often touts the fact that his Supreme Court appointments overturned Roe v. Wade, a longstanding goal for pro-life activists, leaving the issue of abortion back to the states.
President Donald Trump and Judge Amy Coney Barrett
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh (R)
Republican governors like DeSantis have taken the opportunity to sign more restrictive abortion laws, while Democrats continue to score pro-choice victories across the country.
During the Republican primaries, the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America urged Republican candidates to support a 15-week federal abortion ban, but Trump hesitated to explain his position on abortion.
The group responded to the New York Times report by endorsing the idea of a 16-week ban.
“We fully agree with President Donald Trump on protecting babies from abortion violence at 16 weeks of age, when they feel pain,” they wrote in a statement. “A majority of Americans support this compassionate position.”
Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices to the bench during his first term as president, tipping the balance of the justices against Roe v. Wade.
Trump was also the first U.S. president to personally and publicly address the national March for Life, taking the stage at the 2020 annual rally against the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in Washington, DC.
In January he said he was “proud” to have helped overturn the decision.
“(T)hey tried to get Roe v. Wade overturned, and we did it, and I’m proud I did it,” he said in an interview on Fox News in January. “Nobody else could do that but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”
The Biden campaign released a statement from the president condemning Trump’s position.
‘The choice is very simple. Kamala and I will restore Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land once again. Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide,” Biden said. “That’s what’s at stake in November.”