Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said abortion should be left to the states, avoiding a position on the number of weeks at which the procedure should be banned as he tries to navigate an issue that has animated Democrats. “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. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” Trump said in a campaign video. “Many states will be different…At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.” The former president’s stance is unlikely to please religious conservatives who want him to embrace tougher restrictions, and one prominent group quickly expressed its disappointment. And Democrats are certain to continue to blame him for the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended the constitutional right to the procedure. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, expressed disappointment in Trump’s position, saying it ceded the national debate on abortion to Democrats. “If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights,” she said.
But Trump’s advisers didn’t see an upside in wading too deeply into the contentious issue, according to people familiar with his team’s thinking. In the end, Trump decided to stick with a message that states should decide, these people said. More than a dozen Republican-led states have backed near-total bans on the procedure and abortion access is now significantly restricted in about one third of the country. Meanwhile, some states, including Democratic-leaning ones, have passed laws or ballot measures preserving broader access to the procedure. In Florida, where Trump is a resident, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that clears the way for a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy to take effect next month. In a separate decision, the state court approved a ballot measure that, if successful this fall, would undo that ruling and restore the broad abortion access the state had before the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Trump has previously criticized 6 weeks as harsh but hasn’t commented specifically on the Florida rulings. “President Trump supports preserving life but also supports states’ rights,” a Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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