CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to say during a debate this week whether he would ban a national abortion ban if re-elected — a question that has lingered as the Republican nominee has shifted his stance on a key election issue.
In a conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, Trump said he would not sign a federal abortion ban and insisted the ban would not pass Congress. But he twice declined to say whether he would veto such legislation if it made it to his desk. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, told NBC News in an interview last month that the former president would veto the ban.
In response to moderators prompting him about Vance’s statement, Trump said, “I didn’t discuss that with JD, to be honest. And I don’t care if he has a certain view, but I don’t think he spoke for me.
The switch comes as voters and supporters everywhere wait for Trump to clarify his mixed positions on abortion, and Democrats warn that a second Trump presidency could threaten reproductive rights across the country. Meanwhile, Harris stressed his support for restoring federal abortion rights Tuesday night.
“He was given an opportunity to give clarity to the American people. He couldn’t do it,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All. “He doesn’t answer that question directly.”
During the debate, Trump repeatedly took credit for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion, and leaned heavily on his answer to questions about abortion rights: saying it should be left up to the states.
“I’m not signing a ban,” he said, adding that “there’s no reason to sign a ban” because Roe v. Wade was overturned because it once granted a federal right to abortion.
He reiterated that he “doesn’t support a ban on abortion, but that doesn’t matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”
“Throughout this campaign cycle, we’ve been telling voters that they can’t trust Donald Trump on reproductive freedom,” said Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. “And he proved it right last night.”
After the debate, Carol Tobias, chairwoman of the National Right to Life Committee, said she wasn’t surprised Trump didn’t say he supported a national abortion ban because he has previously said there shouldn’t be one.
He said his group isn’t focused on a national ban “because it’s not going to happen. There’s no votes 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 that abortion should be left up to the states, and in an open letter to Trump in April, Students for Life of America urged him to commit to signing the abortion-restricting law . But Hawkins said, “That’s a discussion that will be detailed 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 have become one of the GOP’s biggest vulnerabilities in November.
Timmaraju said he believes Trump is only now opposing the national ban because of political pressure and a desire to win votes in November.
“Relying on him being moderate on his position while in office is out of touch with reality,” he said.
About six in 10 Americans believe their state should generally allow a person to have a legal abortion if she does not want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a July poll by the Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research. Voters in seven states, including conservative ones like Kentucky, Montana and Ohio, have either protected abortion rights or rejected attempts to limit them in statewide ballots over the past two years.
Trump’s shifting abortion policy stances began when the former reality TV star and developer, who had previously called himself “very pro-choice,” began flirting with the nomination.
Before becoming president, Trump has said that he would “really be in favor of a ban” in his book “The America We Deserve,” published in 2000. In 2016, he said he was “pro-life with exceptions” but said “there has to be some punishment” for women seeking abortions – a position he quickly changed. At the 2018 annual March for Life, Trump expressed support for a federal ban on abortion at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
More recently, Trump suggested in March that he might support a national abortion ban for about 15 weeks before announcing he would leave it up to the states.
In an April interview with Time magazine, Trump also said states should stop prosecuting women for abortions or monitoring women’s pregnancies, and declined to comment on the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been embroiled in a heated legal battle. . When asked about mifepristone, he said only that he has “pretty strong views” on the matter, swearing he made a statement that never came.
In May, she said she was open to contraception regulations, before backtracking on the statement, claiming her comments had been misinterpreted.
Trump has also appeared to reverse course on Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which he has previously called a “mistake” and too extreme. Last month, she finally said she would vote against a state ballot measure that seeks to repeal the law and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, a day after she appeared to announce she would vote for the measure. He told reporters the initiative is from “radical Democrats” and falsely claimed it would allow abortion up until birth.
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Laura Ungar in Louisville, Ky. contributed to this report.
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