Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Donald Trump has declined to endorse a national abortion ban and said regulating the procedure should be left up to the states, in a move that is likely to disappoint anti-abortion groups but reassure Republicans who are concerned that the party’s hardline policies could hurt their chances at the ballot box in November.
Trump, who is currently leading the incumbent US President Joe Biden in several nationwide and swing state polls, has come under pressure to lay out his position on abortion, an issue that has divided the US electorate and supercharged Democratic electoral successes in recent years.
In a video posted on Monday to Truth Social, his social media platform, Trump took credit for appointing conservative justices to the US Supreme Court who helped to overturn Roe vs Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion. Trump said he was “proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars, both sides, wanted, and in fact, demanded, be ended”.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down Roe in 2022 and gave states the right to set abortion policies, split the court and the country. It set the stage for more than a dozen states to enact hardline abortion laws that ban the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, when most women do not realise they are pregnant.
But many prominent anti-abortion groups have since called for restrictions to be imposed at the federal level, with a nationwide ban that would have to be enacted by Congress.
Trump rejected those calls on Monday, saying: “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, in this case, the law of the state”.
“At the end of the day, it is all about will of the people,” Trump continued. “Now it is up to the states to do the right thing.”
In the video, Trump also likened himself to Ronald Reagan, saying that like the former president, he was “strongly in favour of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother”.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Republican positions on abortion for the party’s disappointing performances at the ballot box in recent years, including most notably in the 2022 midterm elections, when the party failed to take back control of the US Senate and clinched the House of Representatives by a razor-thin margin.
The former president has signalled concern that voter distaste for draconian abortion laws could hurt his own bid for the White House in November — and in Monday’s statement he said Republicans should be focused on winning votes.
“You must follow your heart on this issue,” Trump said. “But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture, and in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.”
Source link
