Over the past two weeks, Donald Trump has publicly distanced himself from several anti-abortion positions. Democrats see the move as hypocritical, and anti-abortion activists warn it risks alienating voters who have long supported him.
On Thursday, Trump said that if elected, he would let the government or insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization — a form of fertility assistance that some in the anti-abortion movement would like to see curtailed. Trump also appeared to indicate that he planned to vote on a ballot measure to restore abortion access in Florida, where abortion is currently banned after six weeks of pregnancy. “I’m going to vote that we need more than six weeks,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.
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Trump’s campaign quickly walked back his comments on the ballot measure, telling NPR that Trump simply meant that six weeks is too early in pregnancy to ban abortion. “President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida,” his press secretary said.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a decision supported by three justices Trump appointed, Trump has alternately bragged about overturning Roe and complained that outrage over its overturning will cost Republicans elections. But Trump’s comments Thursday mark his latest effort to both clarify and soften his position on the controversial procedure. Last week, Trump also suggested he would not use a 19th-century anti-vice law to ban abortion nationwide, while his running mate, J.D. Vance, said Trump would not sign a national ban.
“I don’t think it necessarily tells us what Trump will or won’t do, because he’s still leaving himself some room for critical questions,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law who studies the legal history of reproduction. But, she continued, “What was a strategy of ‘be ambiguous and then hopefully be all things to all people’ has become more of Trump trying to assure voters that he disagrees with the anti-abortion movement.”
Trump’s new strategy comes as Kamala Harris, a far more effective abortion rights advocate than Joe Biden, has emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee, and polls show the two candidates neck and neck. But the strategy could make anti-abortion voters less energized to vote for him, warned Kristan Hawkins, president of the prominent anti-abortion group Students for Life of America.
“The pro-life movement didn’t always have a solid place in the Republican Party. For years, we were at the table of the little kids,” Hawkins said. “The young people we work with don’t remember that. And so they’re absolutely shocked and saddened when they see someone who they thought was pro-life, or who had always espoused pro-life values, walk away from that.”
While the anti-abortion movement was a key component of Trump’s success in the 2016 presidential election, Republicans have tried to distance themselves from it in the years since Trump’s death, as abortion rights advocates have repeatedly won ballot measures, even in red states. Sixty percent of American adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 70% say access to IVF is a “good thing.”
Tresa Undem, who has spent more than 20 years interviewing people about abortion, doesn’t think Trump’s comments will necessarily win him support from undecided or independent voters who support abortion rights. Instead, he may be trying to reassure the portion of his base that also supports access to the procedure.
“A third of his voters are pro-choice,” Undem said. “In a recent survey we did, 16% of 2020 Trump voters said abortion rights were one of the top five issues on their minds. So when you have an election that’s probably decided by 1% of people, and 16% of Trump voters say their abortion rights are the top issue on their minds, that’s a problem for him.”
Democrats have denounced Trump’s new strategy, particularly his comments on IVF, as a sham. In a press conference Friday organized by Harris’ campaign, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, repeatedly pointed out that Vance had voted against a Senate bill to protect IVF at the federal level.
“Trump who thinks women are stupid and that we can be manipulated,” Warren said. “He seems to believe that he can do one thing by talking to his extremist base and then turn around and smile at the overwhelming majority of Americans who want abortion and IVF to be protected.”
On Friday, the DNC will roll out billboards in Pennsylvania, a crucial, hard-fought state, criticizing Trump over IVF, according to a strategy shared exclusively with the Guardian. “Trump overturned Roe, threatening the future of IVF,” reads one billboard. Another reads: “Donald Trump’s Project 2025 undermines reproductive health and threatens IVF.”
Project 2025, a playbook of conservative policies drawn up by the influential Heritage Foundation, includes a long list of anti-abortion proposals, some of which Trump has tried to distance himself from in recent weeks.
At least one prominent anti-abortion activist, Lila Rose, has publicly stated that she has no plans to vote for Trump at this time, given his recent backlash against anti-abortion positions. But Hawkins is still determined to get people to vote for Trump — not because of Trump himself, but because she fears a Harris presidency would expand abortion access.
“I don’t like it. It’s not where I think we should be as a nation, but I think we’ve had to do this sometimes within the pro-life movement,” she said. “People are being asked, if you can’t vote for a candidate, vote against the worst candidate.”
What Hawkins is less certain about is whether Trump’s comments will affect Students for Life’s get-out-the-vote program for the 2024 elections. “I think it remains to be seen whether we’re talking about Donald Trump at the door,” she said.
