Trump Says His Abortion Strategy Is “States’ Rights”—But Even He Doesn’t Follow It

This week, one Floridian—Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump—weighed in on how he might vote on the state’s abortion access ballot initiative come November.

Florida’s near-total abortion ban went into effect at the beginning of May. The state, helmed by Governor Ron DeSantis, had replaced the 15-week ban with a six-week one, eliminating access before many people even know they’re pregnant.

Now, a 2024 ballot measure is hoping to safeguard abortion access until about 24 weeks, or later if a medical professional deems the procedure necessary to save a patient’s life.

The current ban, Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, is “too short.” When pressed on how he plans to vote on the ballot initiative, he responded, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.” “It has to be more time,” he said.

The conservative backlash was swift.

“If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson posted to X, formerly Twitter. “The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye, in part, to national abortion issues. But for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far for too many.”

“Trump had better count the cost of abandoning pro-life voters—quickly. That cost is going to be very high,” Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on social media. “Pro-life Christian voters are going to have to think clearly, honestly, and soberly about our challenge in this election—starting at the top of the ticket.”

Lila Rose, who heads the prominent anti-abortion group Live Action, shared that she would “love to see him stop saying this nonsense about supporting abortion,” in a Politico piece published Thursday. “But unfortunately, that’s not the case.” “Perhaps,” she said, “he personally lacks principle on this issue.”

Just one day after the first interview with NBC, Trump said he actually wouldn’t be voting for the Florida measure.

“So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” Trump told Fox News. “At the same time, the Democrats are radical, because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month. … So I’ll be voting no for that reason,” he continued, echoing a common abortion myth.

In 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93 percent of abortions occurred during the first trimester. Only about 1 percent were performed at 21 weeks—about five months—or more of gestation. These terminations often occur due to lack of health insurance or health complications for the pregnant person or the fetus.

This day-to-day messaging on how states ought to handle who gets to have an abortion and when is just the latest strategy in Trump’s retelling of how he, and his administration, have decimated access to reproductive healthcare across the country. For three presidential campaigns, Trump has morphed his rhetoric around abortion to best serve his needs. During this latest run for office, Trump has been doubling down on how his stance has always been anchored in states’ rights.

“People forget, fighting Roe v. Wade was, right from the beginning, all about bringing the Issue back to the States,” Trump posted to Truth Social in April. “It wasn’t about anything else,” he continued, “We had a Great Victory, it’s back in the States where it belongs, and where everyone wanted it. The States will be making the decision.”

Yet, when states exercised their newfound agency in this area, Trump wasn’t applauding.

When Arizona reinstated a 1864 law banning virtually all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, Trump said that the state had gone “too far.” “That will be straightened out,” he said. “I’m sure the governor and everybody else will bring it back into reason. That will be taken care of very quickly.”

Enforcement of that ban has been delayed, and Arizonans have their own abortion initiative they’ll be voting on in November.

And, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law in February, Trump again bemoaned the state’s decision.

“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder!” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time. “Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life.”

He’s now claiming that, if elected, his administration would pay for Americans’ IVF treatments.

With this strategy—which seems solely dependent on what room Trump is attempting to read—he is vying for votes from those who are going to the polls with abortion access on the mind this November.

“For women younger than 45, abortion has overtaken the economy as the single most important issue to their vote,” the New York Times reported, based on Times/Siena College polls of registered voters in seven battleground states conducted from August 6 to 15. “And by a wide margin, more say they trust Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald J. Trump to handle abortion.”

In just two months, voters across the nation will weigh in on reproductive access—and those in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota will directly be casting their vote on abortion access measures. Measures that, without the overturning of Roe v. Wade, would cease to exist.

June 24, 2022: the day that five judges overturned Roe—three of which Trump appointed himself—and triggered bans across the country, a verdict applauded by the former president.

“Today’s decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation, along with other decisions that have been announced recently,” Trump wrote in a statement, “were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court.”