Is Trump starting to regret his firm anti-abortion stance?
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What are Trump's views on abortion and how have they changed throughout the years?
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In brief…
- Trump has gone back and forth on various positions on abortions, but has been staunchly against a women’s right to choose since entering politics.
- In his latest policy pledge, he said he would veto a federal ban on abortions and leave it up to individual states to decide.
- He could feel a certain amount of “regret”, The News Agents say, given he needs to appeal to more than one kind of voter come 5 November.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump has a long history of flip flopping when it comes to his views on reproductive rights.
The former president has taken a strong anti-abortion stance since entering politics, but as the Democrats continue to use reproductive rights as the stick to beat Trump with and opinion polls show that most Americans largely back abortion rights, it appears that Trump is now gradually trying to backpedal on his previous stance.
Last week, he posted to Truth Social: "My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
He didn’t mention why exactly his administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.
Earlier in the year, he stated he thinks abortion legislation should be decided at a state level, retreating from his previous position that there should be a federal ban on abortion.
Is Trump starting to regret his anti-abortion stance?
If you are a single-issue Trump supporter because you’re anti-abortion, what do you do now? pic.twitter.com/914uclaHSA
— Zach W. Lambert (@ZachWLambert) August 23, 2024
What has Trump said about reproductive rights?
1999: Trump told an interviewer that although he hates the “concept of abortion” he was “pro-choice”.
He said on NBC’s Meet Press: “I am very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. ... I just believe in choice. Again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because there is some different attitude in some different parts of the country.”
2011: He said he is “pro-life” at a Conservative Political Action Conference as he was considering running for the White House in 2012.
He said: “I am pro-life….Against gun control. ... I will fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that makes sense to people in business and not bankrupt the country.”
2016: Trump called for "some form of punishment” for women seeking abortions during his GOP primaries campaign.
The same year, he also vowed to overturn Roe V Wade, campaigning on the appointment of justices to do so.
2022: The Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe V Wade in 2022. Trump, who personally hired three justices in the court’s 6-3 Republican majority, said he has “no regrets” about the ruling.
He not only celebrated, but took responsibility for the decision, saying “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade”.
April 2024: Trump said he wouldn't sign a federal abortion ban, despite backing this in his first term in office.
Instead, the Republican said it should be up to individual states to decide on the legislation themselves.
August 2024: JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, confirmed this stance in an interview. Namely, that Trump would likely veto a federal ban on abortion should he win the election.
Vance himself has not got the smoothest record on abortion rights, calling for a “federal response” to block women traveling between states to seek abortions.
The News Agents take
Jon Sopel says one issue with Trump’s latest policy - that it should be up to states to decide for themselves on abortion laws, is that some states have “really punitive policies” while others do not.
He says: “They are passing laws in some of the redneck states where you will be punished if anyone helps you travel out of state.”
Not only that, but the difference between term time limits - how far along in a pregnancy in which it is legal to have an abortion - varies massively from state to state.
Go to Vermont, and abortions are legal at any point along in pregnancy. Even across Europe, Emily points out, there are more restrictive time limits than there are in Vermont.
Emily points out: “I think if the Republicans, Trump, and the Supreme Court, had done something very different at the beginning of this and not made it about the state's right to choose, but actually said ‘a lot of people feel uncomfortable with these endless term limits’, they could have got real traction on a subject that a lot of Americans probably could be convinced needed to change a bit.”
So it could be that Trump now feels “a certain amount of regret”, says Emily.
Meanwhile, Democrats have “weaponised this whole area to the hilt” and “basically claimed the rights of women”.
She adds: “Electorally, what this all suggests is that Trump has started looking at the women's vote, 53%.
“He’s looking at young people’s vote, both young women, young men as well, who are thinking about their families or their girlfriends or their wives and starting to think, ‘is it worth it? Am I risking losing people that should have been with me on this?”
Jon agrees: “They are the dog that caught his tail and doesn't know what to do now.”
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