Former President Donald Trump appeared open to restricting access to contraceptives in a new interview that aired Tuesday—continuing to use his stance that abortion is a state issue to sidestep questions about his personal views on reproductive rights.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the NRA ILA Leadership Forum at the National Rifle ... [+]
Trump told Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA “we’re looking at that” when asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception, adding that he would release a policy on the issue “within a week or so.”
Trump also refused to answer outright whether he would veto a national abortion ban, telling KDKA, “I don’t think there’d be any reason for it, because all the states are going to have their own” policies, while noting Congress has repeatedly failed to pass a national abortion ban.
Trump declared in April that abortion laws should be decided at the state-level, prompting a coalition of federal Republican lawmakers to abandon pushes for a national abortion ban and follow suit with Trump.
The interview comes weeks after Trump told Time magazine that states should decide whether to monitor pregnant women or punish them for seeking abortions outside the limits of the law.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
“No, I’m not into the federal, I just took it out of the federal,” Trump told KDKA when asked if he would veto any federal legislation that would restrict or curtail Pennsylvania’s current abortion law, while touting his role in Roe v. Wade’s reversal. “We did something that everybody wanted, everybody said also it couldn’t be done—we got rid of Roe v. Wade, which brought it back to the states.” The majority of Americans (57%) disapprove of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision, according to a July 2022 Pew Research survey that found 62% said it should be legal in all or most cases.
“Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump’s post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it’s clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives,” Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement. “It’s not enough for Trump that women’s lives are being put at risk, doctors are being threatened with jail time, and extreme bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest. He wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control too.”
Trump announced in April he would leave abortion laws up to individual states to decide, reversing course on his support for federal abortion restrictions during his time in office and during his 2016 campaign. Despite saying abortion should be left to states, Trump has denounced two controversial state-level abortion restrictions: Florida’s six-week ban and the Arizona Supreme Court’s reinstatement of an 1864 near-total abortion ban, which was promptly reversed by the state legislature.
Trump told Time last month he doesn’t “have to be comfortable or uncomfortable” with states punishing women who seek access to abortion and predicted some states “might do that.” He also refused to take a stance on whether the Department of Justice should enforce the Comstock Act, which prohibits the mailing of abortion drugs, telling Time he would make a statement on the issue in the coming weeks.
Voters in Nevada, South Dakota, Florida, Arizona, Maryland, Colorado and New York are set to decide in November whether to enshrine abortion protections into their state constitutions. Abortion rights proponents have been largely successful with similar ballot measures in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, including red states such as Kansas and Ohio.
Nevada Is One Step Closer To Having Abortion On The Ballot This Election—Joining These Other States (Forbes)
Trump Says Prosecuting Women For Abortion Is Up To Individual States (Forbes)