Donald Trump said Monday that he wanted to give American states a free hand to legislate on abortion, remaining faithful to jurisprudence of which he is the architect while cautiously renouncing a nationwide ban which could cost him dearly at home. presidential.
“States will determine by vote or by law, or perhaps both. Whatever they decide, it must have the force of law,” he said in a video posted on his Truth Social platform, after months of back and forth on the subject. As a candidate again in November against Democrat Joe Biden, Donald Trump himself prides himself on having, through his appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, resulted in the reversal of jurisprudence of June 2022 which annulled the federal guarantee of the right to abortion.
“Trump got entangled”
Since this decision giving the 50 States full latitude to legislate in this area, around twenty have banned or severely restricted access to abortion. “Many (states) will have a different number of weeks” as the pregnancy limit for an abortion, the Republican explained in his video. “Some will be more conservative than others, and that’s how it is. At the end of the day, it’s the will of the people that counts.”
Donald Trump also accused Democrats of being in favor of abortion until the last months of pregnancy, and “even execution after birth.” An unfounded assertion. In his four-minute video, the Republican presidential candidate in November does not mention the possibility of establishing a nationwide ban, preferring to maintain a certain caution on this highly sensitive issue at the electoral level.
Joe Biden did not fail to have fun with his rival’s balancing act. “Trump got himself entangled,” said the American president in a press release from his campaign team. Donald Trump “fears that voters will hold him accountable” in the presidential election because of his “responsibility” in the end of the federal guarantee of the right to abortion, Joe Biden said. “Well, I have news, Donald. It will be.”
“He brags about his role in creating this nightmare situation”
Abortion has been a battleground of the conservative movement for several decades, but its ban has proven greatly unpopular with the general American public in several recent elections. “Donald Trump supports every state-level ban on abortion, including bans without exception,” said Ammar Moussa, an official on Joe Biden’s campaign team. “And he brags about his role in creating this nightmare situation,” he added.
The anti-abortion association Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life expressed its “deep disappointment”. “The unborn and their mothers deserve to be defended and protected at the national level in the face of the brutality of the abortion industry,” declared its president Marjorie Dannenfelser in a press release.
In March, Donald Trump first indicated that he could support a national ban beyond 15 or 16 weeks. But he also felt that it was not up to the federal administration to decide on this question, warning against the electoral cost of an overly conservative position.
Conservatives have lost every referendum or vote on the issue of abortion
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, conservatives have lost every referendum or ballot measure addressing the issue of abortion. And this even in states that are usually theirs, like Ohio or Kansas. The Democrats, for their part, are capitalizing on this hot topic, which has made them a winning machine — at least in local elections.
Vice-President Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate, regularly travels to American campuses in the most contested states in the election to discuss abortion. “Across the country, extremists are attacking women’s access to health care and reproductive rights,” she again denounced at the end of March in North Carolina, urging Americans to support Joe Biden on November 5 to protect access to abortion.
Across the country, Democrats have also encouraged the organization of mini-referendums on abortion in several decisive presidential states – Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania – on the same day as the election between Donald Trump to Joe Biden.