Donald Trump said Wednesday he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected to the White House again, reversing a promise the former president made as a candidate in 2016 and stood by during his first term in office.
Trump’s latest shift on abortion is a remarkable position for a Republican presidential nominee and it is illustrative of Trump’s desire to make one of his greatest political liabilities disappear. It follows a lengthy statement released Monday in which Trump said that states and voters should decide how and when to restrict abortion but left unclear how far he would take that approach.
Appearing on a tarmac Wednesday in Atlanta, Trump provided a more definitive answer. Asked if he would sign a national abortion ban if it passed Congress, the former president shook his head: “No.”
“You wouldn’t sign it?” the reporter asked.
“No,” Trump said again.
The response came a day after Trump’s first-term drive to overturn Roe v. Wade crystalized in a battleground state critical to his third White House bid. In a stunning decision out of Arizona, the state Supreme Court there ruled Tuesday that the state must adhere to a 160-year-old law barring all abortions “except those necessary to save a woman’s life.” The law at the center of the ruling predates Arizona’s statehood.
Trump in Atlanta sought to distance himself from the Arizona ruling, even as he again took credit for the US Supreme Court decision that allowed for it. The campaign for President Joe Biden, already airing ads in swing states tying the presumptive Republican nominee to the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, immediately dismissed Trump’s latest abortion salvo as meritless.
“Donald Trump owns the suffering and chaos happening right now, including in Arizona, because he proudly overturned Roe – something he called ‘an incredible thing’ and ‘pretty amazing’ just today,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “Trump lies constantly – about everything – but has one track record: banning abortion every chance he gets.”
As a 2016 presidential candidate, Trump embraced a federal abortion ban as he sought to consolidate Republican support for his unexpected ascension to GOP nominee. He sent a letter to anti-abortion leaders committing to signing legislation that would have criminalized abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for instances in which the life of the mother is at risk or cases involving rape or incest.
Trump reiterated his support for the bill in 2018 when he was president, saying at a March for Life rally, “I strongly supported the House of Representatives’ ‘Pain-Capable’ bill, which would end painful, late-term abortions nationwide, and I call upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it to my desk for signing.”
