In his most forthright position on a sensitive and divisive issue in American politics, former president Donald Trump stated on Monday that states should have the power to decide on abortion rights. The states will decide by vote or legislation, or maybe both, now that abortion is legal where everyone wants it. Additionally, their decision shall be final and binding upon all. According to Trump, “in this case, the law of the state” (Truth Social, video).

“A lot of states are going to be significantly different,” Trump further stated. There will be a wide variety in the amount of weeks, and some will be more conservative than others. What matters most is the people’s desire, in the end. A 15-week federal ban, with certain exceptions for incest, rape, and situations when the mother’s life is in risk, was something Trump had previously indicated he could back. A prominent anti-abortion rights group, however, quickly criticized his approach, claiming it did not go far enough, and he ultimately decided to leave the politically charged matter to the states rather than support a nationwide ban.

Taking the issue “out of the federal hands and into the hearts, minds, and vote of the people in each state,” Trump claimed in Monday’s video that he was “proudly the person responsible” for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The ex-president did not specify how many weeks into a pregnancy he believed it would be reasonable to outlaw abortion, but he did state his continued support for specific exemptions. He had already made it clear that he thought six-week state prohibitions on abortion were “terrible” and said that Republicans have been struggling politically because to the abortion topic ever since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling removed federal safeguards for the operation.

When asked about the impending six-week abortion ban in Florida, which is poised to be enacted into law following a recent verdict by the state’s Supreme Court, Trump informed reporters last week that he will be making a “statement” on the matter.

Pro-Life America, a prominent anti-abortion organization that has set a 15-week national ban as its threshold for Republican presidential contenders, reacted swiftly to Trump’s video Monday.

We are really dissatisfied with President Trump’s stance. The abortion industry’s cruelty is an issue that demands national activism and protections for pregnant women and their unborn children. The group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, stated that the Dobbs ruling clearly gives states and Congress the authority to take action.

“The pro-life movement has always been about the wellbeing of the unborn child – not geography,” Trump ally and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham stated, “respectfully” disagreeing with the previous president.

Following his October withdrawal from the Republican presidential campaign, Mike Pence, the former vice president, took to social media to criticize his former boss’s decision, calling it a “retreat on the Right to Life” and a “slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.”

Later on Monday, Trump retaliated on social media for the comments.

“Lindsey, Marjorie, and others fought for years, unsuccessfully, until I came along and got the job done,” the former president remarked on his Truth Social platform. “We must not allow our nation to incur any additional harm by losing elections over a matter that rightfully belonged to the states and will now be decided by them!”

Graham responded to Trump’s comments by restating his support for a ban on abortion beyond 15 weeks. “As the child develops, it can feel pain,” he claimed, adding that it’s a state issue.

Graham informed CNN that states should handle things their way. “However, I believe that we must conform to the standards of the civilized world within fifteen weeks.”

Trump made the incorrect assertion in his video that “all legal scholars, both sides” sought to have Roe v. Wade overturned and that “abortion where everybody wanted it, from a legal standpoint.” A large number of pro-choice academics and voters in the United States did not back the move to reverse the Supreme Court’s historic 1973 decision that legalized abortion across the country.

Changing perspectives
From his early political ventures, Trump has held twisted views on abortion. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” after he announced his 1999 presidential exploratory committee, Trump claimed to be “very pro-choice.”

The idea of abortion is abhorrent to me…. He remained firm in his belief in free will, nevertheless.

In 2016, as he sought the Republican nomination for president, Trump made an effort to disassociate himself from the comment in order to appease conservatives and doubtful anti-abortion figures. In an effort to reverse Roe v. Wade, he promised to fill the Supreme Court with conservative judges. During a memorable exchange in the Republican race, Trump stated that women who have abortions should be punished in some way if they were illegal. Trump then said that doctors, and not women, should be held “legally responsible” in such a situation, after his campaign swiftly recanted the comment in response to the strong outcry. Democrats will continue to link the presumed Republican presidential nominee, Trump, to a slew of anti-abortion legislation enacted following the landmark Dobbs decision, which the former president was able to accomplish by fulfilling his promise to reform the Supreme Court. This will happen regardless of Trump’s latest effort to clarify his position. (The three justices who dissented from Roe v. Wade were all nominated by Trump.)

“Donald Trump made it clear once again today that he is – more than anyone in America – the person responsible for ending Roe v. Wade,” President Joe Biden said in a campaign statement Monday. “The brutality and anarchy that have engulfed America since the Dobbs decision are largely his doing, more so than anyone else in the country.”

The second-most populous state in the US, Texas, is one of fourteen states that prohibit abortion in most circumstances. Abortions are illegal in seven more states between the ages of six and eighteen weeks. Included in this category is Trump’s home state of Florida, which will soon implement a restriction on abortions lasting six weeks.

On Monday, Trump restated his support for limited abortion access, but he did not propose nationwide legislation to protect mothers from imminent danger or victims of rape or incest. When it comes to rape and incest, many states that have outright banned abortion do not make any exceptions. Some even go so far as to demand that assault victims find police reports as proof of their attacks.

Another issue is that there aren’t any universal rules for how to tell if a woman’s health is at danger. In an effort to comply with the new abortion limitations, doctors in numerous states have scrambled to interpret nebulous regulations, putting their medical licenses and perhaps their lives in jeopardy.

A third of American women are already subject to harmful and draconian bans that endanger their lives and threaten the prosecution of doctors who are just doing their jobs, all because of Donald Trump. And Biden warned on Monday that the situation will only worsen.

After Trump “made a political deal” to repeal Roe v. Wade, Biden claimed at a campaign event in Chicago later Monday that “no one” trusts Trump. The traveling press pool reported that Biden stated, “Trump and the MAGA crowd don’t have a clue about the power of women in America.” It was as reported. Everyone knows that Trump is in a jam. He’s concerned that people will demand answers from him.

Against this backdrop, pro-choice activists are working to secure constitutional protections for abortion on the ballot in states around the nation this fall. Voters in certain states will decide the destiny of abortion access, according to Trump’s Monday address.

On the other hand, Trump has not yet spoken on a bill to expand access to abortion that will be on the ballot in his home state of Florida in November.