Former President Donald Trump said states should decide whether to monitor pregnant women to ensure they don’t violate abortion bans or prosecute women who do obtain abortions in violation of state laws, according to a transcript of his recent interview with Time magazine—as Trump avoided saying outright whether he supports or opposes a range of abortion restrictions.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to court during his trial for allegedly covering up hush ... [+]
When asked whether states with abortion bans should punish women who seek access to the procedure, Trump said “I don’t have to be comfortable or uncomfortable,” adding “the states are going to make that decision.”
When pressed again, he said “I think [the states] might do that,” and insisted “it’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not.”
The comments build on Trump’s defense of Roe v. Wade’s reversal by casting the decision as one that returned power to states to make their own abortion laws.
Trump made clear for the first time earlier this month he would not sign a national abortion ban into law—a reversal from a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2016 and during his time in office—but he would not say in the Time interview whether he would veto such a law, predicting Congress would “never” pass one.
Trump told Time he would make a statement in the coming weeks on whether the Department of Justice should enforce the Comstock Act, which prohibits the mailing of abortion drugs, as some of his Republican allies have called on him to do. He did not take a position on the issue in the Time interview: “I feel very strongly about it. I actually think it’s a very important issue,” he told Time.
Trump has repeatedly credited himself with appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, but largely shied away from giving a definitive stance on whether he personally supports abortion restrictions. He said earlier this month the decision should be left to individual states, but at the same time he has Florida’s six-week abortion ban is “too severe” and the Arizona Supreme Court’s recent decision to reimplement an 1864 abortion ban—generating criticism from Democrats that he is equivocating on the issue. Republican lawmakers have largely followed suit with Trump, with many abandoning their previous endorsements of a federal ban and backing a state-by-state approach.
Trump, a Florida resident, would not say how he plans to vote on a ballot measure that would overturn the state’s abortion ban.
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