Trump reveals he will make a decision on abortion position ‘fairly soon’, which ‘both sides will be happy with’, amid reports he supports a national 16-week ban

Former President Donald Trump says he will make a decision on his position on abortion “fairly soon,” nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday, the ex-president said he would like to “make both parties happy” as he seeks a second term in the White House.

Abortion is expected to be one of the top issues leading up to the November elections and has proven to be a huge motivator for Democrats and moderate voters.

Trump has privately expressed support for a national 16-week abortion ban, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, the New York Times reported in February.

“I would like to see if we can make both parties happy,” Trump said in the interview with Fox News on Sunday.

Trump has touted to nominate three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade in 2022. The New York Times recently reported that the ex-president has privately expressed support for a 16-week abortion ban

During his campaign, Trump has celebrated the overturning of Roe and praised the appointment of the three justices to the Supreme Court during his first term, which helped overturn the historic 2022 ruling.

“They’ve done something that is extremely good from many points of view,” Trump told Fox News.

He labeled Democrats as the ones who are “radicals” on the issue.

But abortion rights divided Republicans in the 2024 presidential election.

While Trump has praised the Supreme Court justices he nominated for overturning Roe v Wade, he also went after his Republican opponents for their positions on abortion.

Last year, Trump called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing a six-week ban a “terrible mistake.”

Trump also declined to say during the primaries whether he would support a federal ban on abortion, a position supported by several of his former Republican Party presidential opponents.

In an interview with NBC, Trump said he could “live with” a ban on abortion in individual states.

Fourteen states passed complete abortion bans after the overturning of Roe, with limited exceptions. Another seven states have abortion bans ranging from six to eighteen weeks. Several states that have passed bans have had them held up in court.

A 16-week national ban would further restrict abortion in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

Republicans suffered a series of losses in recent years in the 2022 midterms and special elections, which were blamed on the overturning of Roe.

Trump blamed the “abortion problem” for Republicans underperforming expectations in 2022.

When abortion rights came to the floor as amendments in more than a handful of states since the 2022 decision, voters supported abortion rights even in red states like Kansas and Ohio.

Exit polls showed abortion was the top issue in several battleground states during the midterm elections.

Democrats have seized on this, forcing Republicans to grapple with their stance on abortion in races across the country.

President Biden’s re-election campaign has already aired a series of ads about abortion ahead of the November elections.

The president has promised to sign legislation to codify Roe if Congress sends him a bill, something that currently doesn’t have enough support on the Hill.

President Biden has called on Congress to pass a bill to codify Roe v Wade, but Democrats lack the necessary support to pass a law

Abortion rights advocates gather outside the Supreme Court on April 14, 2023. Abortion is expected to be one of the top issues in the 2024 elections

Anti-abortion advocates participate in the ‘March for Life’ on January 19, 2024 in Washington, DC

Vice President Kamala has visited a series of states as she led the administration’s push to protect abortion rights. Last week, she became the first vice president or president to visit an abortion clinic during her visit to Minnesota.

Trump has been inconsistent on this issue since before his first bid for the White House. As a New York businessman, he expressed support for abortion rights, but that changed when he began indicating his intention to enter politics as a Republican.

In 2016, then-Republican candidate Trump said in a television interview that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who had illegal abortions. His campaign at the time quickly put an end to it.

Kaiser Family Foundation polling in early March found that one in eight voters said abortion is the most important issue to them in the 2024 election.

The majority of Americans (58 percent) said they oppose a national abortion ban at 16 weeks, although the majority of Republicans (63 percent) said they favor it.

The same poll found that two-thirds of the public, including 67 percent of independents, support a law guaranteeing the federal right to abortion.