Trump wouldn’t say whether he’d veto a national ban even as abortion remains a top election issue
CHICAGO– Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to say during this week’s debate whether he would veto a national abortion ban if re-elected — a question that has lingered as the Republican nominee has shifted his position on the crucial election issue.
On Tuesday debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said he would not sign a federal abortion ban, insisting that a ban would not pass Congress anyway. But he twice declined to say whether he would veto such legislation if it came to his desk. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, said in an interview Last month, NBC News said the former president would block a ban.
In response to moderators who pressed him about Vance’s statement, Trump said, “I haven’t discussed it with JD, frankly. And I don’t care if he has a particular opinion, but I don’t think he spoke for me.”
The exchange comes as voters and advocates across the spectrum wait for Trump to clarify his shifting positions on abortion, and Democrats warn that reproductive rights across the country could be threatened by a second Trump presidency. Meanwhile, Harris stressed his support for restoring a federal right to abortion Tuesday night.
“He had an opportunity to clarify for the American people. He couldn’t do it,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All. “He’s not going to answer that question directly.”
During the debate, Trump repeatedly took credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion and he based his response to questions about abortion rights largely on his general answer: that the issue should be left to the states.
“I will not sign a ban,” he said, adding that “there is no reason to sign the ban” because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which once granted a federal right to abortion.
He reiterated that he “does not support a ban on abortion, but that doesn’t matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”
“This entire campaign cycle, we’ve been telling voters that they can’t trust Donald Trump when it comes to their reproductive freedom,” said Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. “And he proved that right last night.”
After the debate, Carol Tobias, chair of the National Right to Life Committee, said she wasn’t surprised that Trump didn’t say he would support a nationwide ban on abortion, as he has said in the past that there shouldn’t be a nationwide ban.
She said her group is not focused on a national ban “because it’s not going to happen. The votes are not there in Congress. You know, President Trump said he wouldn’t sign it. We know Kamala Harris won’t.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the anti-abortion movement largely disagrees with Trump’s position that abortion should be left up to the states, saying in an April report open letter Against Trump, Students for Life of America urged him to commit to signing legislation restricting abortion. But Hawkins said, “That’s a conversation that will be had in detail after the election.”
Trump’s state-based narrative is one of his attempts to appear more moderate on abortion rights, which remain widely popular and are among the GOP’s biggest vulnerabilities heading into November.
Timmaraju believes Trump is now only expressing his opposition to a nationwide ban because of political pressure and a desire to win votes in November.
“The confidence that he will be moderate in his position while he is still in office is at odds with reality,” she said.
All around 6 out of 10 Americans generally believe their state should allow a person to get a legal abortion if he or she does not want to become pregnant for whatever reason, a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Voters in seven statesincluding conservative states such as Kentucky, Montana and Ohio, have protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to restrict abortion rights in state elections in the past two years.
Trump’s shifting positions on abortion policy began when the former reality star and real estate developer, who once called himself “very pro-choice,” began flirting with the idea of running for public office.
Before he became president, Trump said he would “indeed support a ban” in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve.” In 2016, he said he was “pro-life with exceptions” but said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who seek abortions — a position he quickly reversed. At the 2018 annual March for Life, Trump supported a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
More recently, Trump has suggested in march that he might support a nationwide ban on abortions around 15 weeks, before announcing he would leave it up to the states.
In an interview with Time Magazine in April, Trump also said it should be up to the states whether to women persecute for abortions or to monitor women’s pregnancies and declined to comment about access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which was embroiled in an intense legal battle. When asked about mifepristone, he claimed only that he had “pretty strong opinions” on the issue and promised to make a statement that never came.
In May he said he was open to regulations on contraception before to decline from the statement, in which he claimed his comments had been misinterpreted.
Trump also appears to have reversed course on Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which he previously called a “mistake” and too extreme. Last month, he finally said he would vote against a vote in the state seeking to repeal the law and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, a day after he seemed to indicate he would vote for the measure. He told reporters the initiative comes from “radical” Democrats and falsely claimed it would allow abortions up until birth.
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Laura Ungar in Louisville, Kentucky contributed to this report.
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