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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated on Monday that decisions regarding abortions rights should be left to individual US states, thereby rejecting the idea of a national abortions ban.
Trump, who has been sending mixed signals on the issue, clarified his stance in a video posted on his Truth Social network.
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He emphasized that, in his view, abortion laws should be determined through state-level voting or legislation. Trump asserted that whatever decision each state reaches should be respected as the law of that particular state.
Trump’s statement comes after weeks of speculation regarding his position on abortion rights. Earlier reports suggested that he was considering a 16-week national abortion ban but was hesitant to address it publicly for fear of alienating socially conservative supporters.
The issue of abortion rights has become increasingly contentious, particularly since the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade and delegated authority to the states to establish their abortion laws. Some states have enacted near-total bans on abortion, while others, such as Maryland, have passed laws to protect abortion rights.
Trump’s Democratic rival, US President Joe Biden, has consistently supported abortion access despite his Catholic beliefs. Democrats have framed Trump as an adversary of reproductive rights and have pledged to reinstate Roe.
Since the fall of Roe, abortion rights advocates have achieved several referendum victories, while Republicans have struggled to define their position on the issue, resulting in losses in key battlegrounds during the 2022 midterm elections.
In his video, Trump reiterated his support for exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, aligning himself with former Republican president Ronald Reagan’s stance on abortion. He also expressed strong support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) access for couples seeking to conceive.
Legal experts suggest that the Supreme Court’s ruling has given states significant authority over questions of personhood, potentially impacting various aspects of reproductive health, including IVF.
