Donald Trump declines to endorse US-wide abortion ban

The former US president says a ban should be decided by individual states
Maryam Kara8 April 2024

Former US president Donald Trump has said abortion limits should be left to individual states to decide - rather than a nationwide ban - in a video he released on Monday.

He has declined to endorse a national ban following months of mixed messaging which has come as a blow to many anti-abortion groups.

Trump, who is leading President Joe Biden in several nationwide polls for the US presidential election, has been falling under mounting pressure to deliver his standpoint on abortion.

The issue of abortion remains one of the most contentious in American politics as the country’s November elections are fast-approaching.

In a video posted on his Truth Social network, Trump said: “Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights. My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.”

He explained his support in the case of three exceptions, including rape, incest and when the life of a mother is at risk, before going on to say that many states will be different and that many people will have a different number of weeks.

Trump again took credit for the US Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, saying that he was “proudly the person responsible for the ending” of the constitutional right to abortion.

The announcement sparked an immediate backlash from anti-abortion groups calling for restrictions to be imposed on a federal level.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA Pro-Life America, one of the country’s most prominent groups opposed to abortion rights, said in a statement: “We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.”

Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign said Trump was “endorsing every single abortion ban in the states, including abortion bans with no exceptions.”

“And he’s bragging about his role in creating this hellscape,” campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Trump’s statement follows his suggestion last month that he was leaning towards a national abortion ban at the approximately 15-week mark.

At the same time, Trump seemed reluctant to embrace a federal ban.

“Everybody agrees — you’ve heard this for years — all the legal scholars on both sides agree: It’s a state issue. It shouldn’t be a federal issue, it’s a state issue,” he said.

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