Facing criticism from pro-life groups over his recent comments on abortion, former president Donald Trump on Tuesday bragged that he was the one who finally “got the job done” on overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I was able to do something that nobody thought was possible, end Roe v. Wade,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “For 52 years, people talked, spent vast amounts of money, but couldn’t get the job done. I got the job done! Thanks to the three great Supreme Court Justices I appointed, this issue has been returned to the States, where all Legal Scholars, on both sides, felt it should be.”
“In order to win in 2024, Republicans must learn how to talk about Abortion. This issue cost us unnecessarily, but dearly, in the Midterms,” Trump wrote, doubling down on a position he took days earlier during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
During that interview, Trump accused members of his own party of speaking “very inarticulately” about abortion — but declined to give specifics about his own views on the issue.
Trump told the show’s new moderator, Kristen Welker, that “both sides are going to like me” on the issue of abortion and suggested he could serve as a mediator between Republicans and Democrats to find consensus.
“We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.”
Asked whether that agreement would be a state or federal policy, Trump replied: “It could be state or it could be federal. I don’t, frankly, care.”
Trump declined to endorse a standard number of weeks after which abortion would be illegal, with some exceptions, and he similarly refused to say whether he feels the issue would be best settled at the state or federal level.
He blasted how other Republicans have spoken about the issue.
“I watch some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera,” he said. “I said, ‘Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.”
“Because Democrats don’t want to be radical on the issue, most of them, some do,” he added. “They don’t want to be radical on the issue. They don’t want to kill a baby in the seventh month or the ninth month or after birth. And they’re allowed to do that, and you can’t do that.”
While Trump pointed to 15 weeks as a “number that people are talking about right now” for a federal abortion limit, he said he wouldn’t sign a 15-week ban as president.
He criticized the six-week ban signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis as “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
DeSantis hit back against the criticism saying, “Trump may think it’s terrible. I think protecting babies with heartbeats is noble and just.”
“Any time he did a deal with Democrats . . . they ended up taking him to the cleaners,” he added.
Iowa governor Kim Reynolds has also defended six-week abortion bans, having signed one into law in the Hawkeye State earlier this year.
“It’s never a ‘terrible thing’ to protect innocent life. I’m proud of the fetal heartbeat bill the Iowa legislature passed and I signed in 2018 and again earlier this year,” Reynolds wrote in a post on X.
Lila Rose, the founder of the pro-life group Live Action, called Trump’s comments “Pathetic and unacceptable.”
“Trump is actively attacking the very pro-life laws made possible by Roe’s overturning,” she said. “Heartbeat Laws have saved thousands of babies. But Trump wants to compromise on babies’ lives so pro-abort Dems “like him.” Trump should not be the GOP nominee.”