Trump calls for states to determine their own abortion rules, favors exceptions

(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump said Monday it’d be best if states handled abortion the way their constituents want.

“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be,” he said on social media platform Truth Social. “At the end of the day, it’s all about will of the people.”

In his announcement on social media platform Truth Social, the Republican presidential candidate said he’s in favor of exceptions to abortion restrictions in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother. He also said he “strongly” supports fertility treatments.

Trump repeated debunked claims that most legal scholars wanted Roe v. Wade overturned and that Democrats support the “execution” of viable fetuses.

“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,” Trump said. “And whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.”

Trump, in his video, said he was “proudly the person responsible” for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion.

Biden, in a statement of his own that criticized Trump’s comments, did agree with Trump on this one matter.

“He is — more than anyone in America — responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision,” Biden wrote, referencing the June 2022 court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. “Trump once said women must be punished for seeking reproductive health care — and he’s gotten his wish. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and left to travel hundreds of miles for health care.”

Although Trump did not say when in pregnancy he believes abortion should be banned, Biden wrote, should “Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law.”

Trump’s announcement was long-anticipated because Democrats view abortion as a winning topic for them. Polling has consistently shown that most Americans believe abortion should be legal through the initial stages of pregnancy. About half of U.S. adults said abortions should be permitted at the 15-week mark, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted last June.

Data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the vast majority of abortions from 2012 to 2021 were performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

Reaction to Trump’s video on abortion was swift.

His former vice president, Mike Pence, who was once in the running to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, called Trump’s statements a “slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.”

“However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country,” Pence said.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser criticized Trump in a statement Monday, though added that her organization, as well as other anti-abortion groups, will still work “tirelessly to defeat President Biden.”

“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy,” she said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement that he “respectfully disagrees” that abortion is a state’s rights issue as well, NewsNation partner The Hill reported.

Trump later took to Truth Social to blast his critics, saying that Graham was doing a “great disservice to the Republican party.”

“Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency…” Trump wrote.

Meanwhile, Ammar Moussa, the rapid response director for Biden’s campaign, said Trump’s remarks meant he is “endorsing every single abortion ban in the states, including abortion bans with no exceptions.”

“He’s bragging about his role in creating this hellscape,” Moussa wrote on the social media platform X.

Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, in a statement expressed confidence that those who “clearly rejected anti-abortion politics” in other post-Dobbs elections will “do the same with Donald Trump and his cronies in 2024.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report