Former President Donald Trump appears to have changed his message on abortion in recent weeks, despite bragging that he was the one who suppressed federal abortion rights.
Between social media posts and interviews, Trump has claimed to be a champion of reproductive rights. Just this week, he proposed that the government and insurers should pay for IVF treatments and said Florida’s six-week abortion ban was too short (before backtracking).
Democrats are angry about the measure, because they believe the Republican presidential candidate is using this tactic to win votes. At the same time, there has been disagreement with Republican allies, who feel he has abandoned them on the anti-abortion movement, a key issue that characterizes the conservative party.
The issue has only become an electoral burden for the GOP. Abortion rights won big, even in red states, when it was on the ballot in the 2022 midterm elections. And national polls show that since then Roe vs. Wade was repealed two years ago, widespread support for abortion rights has only increased.
A Gallup poll in May found that 85% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances, while an Associated Press/NORC poll in June found that 70% believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. And according to an April Yahoo News/YouGov poll, a growing majority of Americans want Congress to pass legislation that Roe vs. Wade protections.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris emphasized Trump’s positions on abortion during the campaign, saying at the Democratic National Convention that Trump “and his allies would restrict access to contraception, ban medication abortions, and implement a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress.” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren called Trump’s seemingly ever-changing positions “smoke and mirrors,” and Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, said Trump “is the one who overturned Roe and endangered access to IVF.”
The day after the Democratic convention ended, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” His change in language signaled a shift in his views on abortion, as it is rare among Republicans to use the term “reproductive rights.”
Here’s what else Trump has said about reproductive rights in recent weeks.
What Trump Said About Fertility Treatments
In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos were legally considered human beings. Discarding embryos is an inherent part of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a type of fertility treatment. The decision caused an outcry because it would pave the way for wrongful death lawsuits across the state if an embryo was destroyed during the process. The ruling forced Alabama providers to halt fertility treatments, leaving many patients in limbo.
Since then, IVF has become a politically charged issue in this election cycle and a major theme for Democrats, who believe that Republican-led abortion restrictions could further restrict IVF.
After the February ruling, Trump called on the Alabama Legislature to “quickly find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama.” The state ultimately passed a law in March to protect the procedure.
On Thursday, Trump took IVF access to a new level, saying during the campaign that if re-elected, he would not only protect the fertility procedure but make the government or insurance companies pay for it. He did not provide details about how his plan would work.
What Trump Said About Florida’s Six-Week Abortion Ban
Florida currently has a six-week ban on abortions, a point at which many women do not yet know they are pregnant. When Governor Ron DeSantis signed the ban last September, Trump called it “a terrible mistake.”
In November, Florida voters will vote on whether to keep abortion rights in the state constitution. Trump, a Florida voter, was asked by NBC News how he would vote on the ballot initiative that would expand abortion access.
“I think six weeks is too short; there needs to be more time,” Trump said. “I’ve told them I want more weeks.” While Trump did not explicitly say he would vote for the measure, he did say, “I’m going to vote that we need more than six weeks.”
Trump’s campaign quickly retracted his comments after widespread criticism from conservative allies such as the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group.
“President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the Florida ballot initiative, only reiterating that he believes six weeks is too short a time,” said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokeswoman.
What Trump Has Said About Abortion in the Past
Trump’s changing stance on abortion spans decades. Here’s a very brief timeline of his stance on abortion, starting when he said he was “pro-choice.”
October 1999: “I am very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion,” Trump said in an NBC News broadcast “Meet the press” interview. “I just believe in choice. Again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because in some parts of the country there’s a different attitude. … I grew up in New York and grew up and worked and everything in New York City. But I’m very pro-choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion.”
February 2011: When Trump was considering a run for the White House in 2012, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference and outlined his position on abortion. “I am pro-life,” he said.
October 2016: During the 2016 election, Trump said he would appoint the necessary justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to Roe v. Wade, which established the federal right to abortion. During Trump’s tenure in the White House, he appointed three conservative justices: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. In June 2022, the conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe by a 6-3 majority in his Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
September 2023: Trump vaguely indicated that Meet the press that he would compromise on abortion. “Let me tell you what I would do,” he said. “I’m going to meet with all the groups and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable.”
March 2024: Trump gets credit for eliminating Roe vs. Wade. “After 50 years of failure, with no one even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Without me, there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever was ultimately agreed upon. Without me, the pro-life movement would have continued to lose,” Trump added.
April 2024: Trump announced that he believes the issue of abortion should be left up to the states, despite earlier reports that he had privately expressed support for a federal ban on abortion through 16 weeks.
“My opinion now is that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social. “The states will decide by vote or legislation or maybe both, and whatever they decide has to be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”
