Trump would oppose a federal abortion ban bill, Vance says

NEW YORK (AP) – Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance says Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it reached his desk.

“I can absolutely commit to that,” Vance said when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he could commit to Trump not imposing such a ban. “Donald Trump’s view is that we want individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want an ongoing federal conflict on this issue.”

The Ohio senator also insisted that Trump, the former president who is the Republican nominee this year, would veto such legislation if Congress passed it.

“I mean, if you don’t support it as president of the United States, you basically have to dodge it,” he said in an interview that aired Sunday.

Vance’s comments came after Democrats spent night after night at their national convention in Chicago last week attacking Trump for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and paving the way for bans and restrictions in Republican-led states.

But efforts to neutralize an issue that Democrats hope will galvanize voters this fall also threaten to alienate parts of Trump’s base that oppose abortion rights.

“God have mercy on this nation if this is now the position of the Pro-Life Party,” wrote Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, in a post Sunday that linked to a story about Vance’s comments.

While Trump has repeatedly boasted of his role in overturning Roe, in recent days he has dismissed warnings from Democrats that he would go even further to limit access if he wins a second term.

“My administration will be big on women and their reproductive rights,” she wrote Friday on her Truth Social platform, adopting language used by abortion rights activists and the left.

His comments drew a wave of criticism from anti-abortion opponents, including an editor at the conservative National Review, who published an article titled “Trump’s Abandonment of Life-Lifers Is Complete.”

Trump repeated his claim hours later at an event in Las Vegas.

“I am very strong on women’s reproductive rights. IVF (in vitro fertilization), very strong. I mean, we’re leaders in that. And I think people will see that,” he told reporters.

Democrats have responded to Trump with deep skepticism.

“American women are not stupid, and we are not going to trust the future of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about denying women access to abortion across this country,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told NBC.

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., brushed off a question asking how Trump would be “big” on reproductive rights.

“You’d have to ask him that. I would say President Trump was a very good pro-life president,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“The pro-life community,” Graham said, “organizes around the well-being of the child and gives the mother options other than abortion.” Graham said “the business will continue while he’s gone.”

Trump has often struggled to talk about abortion. Before entering politics, he had described himself as “very picky”. Earlier this year, he wrestled with his stance on the federal abortion ban, suggesting at one point that he would support abortion at about 15 weeks of pregnancy, barring rape, incest and danger to the mother’s life. Then he settled on his current position: that restrictions should be left to individual states.

Trump has not said how he plans to vote on Florida’s upcoming six-week ban.

In an interview with CBS News earlier this week, Trump said he “didn’t regret” his role in overturning Roe v. Wade. But after months of confusing statements, he said he would not use the federal law known as the Comstock Act to try to ban the distribution of drugs used as an alternative to surgical abortions. This is something that some of his allies have called for and that Vance has supported in the past.

“We will discuss the specifics of it, but not in general terms,” ​​he said. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“It’s going to be available and it is now. And as I know the Supreme Court has said, ‘Keep it as is.’ it is now,” he said.

Abortion has been a powerful motivator for Democrats since the Roe decision in the summer of 2022, and the party expects it to continue to play a key role this year.

On stage at the Democratic convention, the women told harrowing personal stories of enduring pregnancies to term and dealing with miscarriages that put their future fertility at risk.

“This is happening in our country because of Donald Trump. And understand, he’s not ready,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a speech accepting her party’s nomination.

Trump, who had responded to the speech in real time, falsely claimed that “everyone, Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives, wanted Roe v. Wade ENDED and brought back to the United States.”

“I am not restricting access to birth control or IVF – THIS IS A LIE, these are all false stories he is making up,” she wrote. “I TRUST WOMEN TOO AND I KEEP WOMEN SAFE!”