Former President Donald Trump has cautioned Republicans from taking a too hard stance against abortion access ahead of the election in November, saying that the issue could cost the GOP the presidency.
Abortion rights have appeared to be a winning issue for Democrats following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, causing some Republicans—including Trump—to press the party to ease up on the topic ahead of the crucial 2024 election.
In a post to Truth Social on Monday afternoon, Trump specifically called out GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who on Monday split with the former president over if there should be a 15-week federal ban on abortion.
“Senator Lindsey Graham is doing a great disservice to the Republican Party, and to our Country,” Trump wrote, adding later in his post that the “Radical Left Democrats…love this Issue, and they want to keep it going for as long as Republicans will allow them to do so.”
The post from Trump came after he made a video announcement earlier in the day advocating that abortion rights be left up to the states, who he said should decide the issue “by vote or legislation.”
Graham, a Trump-endorsee, released a statement shortly after saying that he “respectfully” disagreed with the former president, adding, “I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at fifteen weeks because the child is capable of feeling pain, with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
Trump added in his post that, “Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency…”
Newsweek reached out to Graham’s office for additional comment.
Trump also faced pushback from his ex-running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence, who said in a statement on social media that Trump’s “retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.” Trump has previously taken credit for being able to “kill” Roe v. Wade after nominating three conservative Supreme Court justices during his presidency who were essential in overturning the federal protection to abortion.
“The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law,” Pence wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “But today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life.”
“However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country,” the former vice president added.
A survey conducted for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in February shows that 40 percent of voters agree with Trump that abortion rights should be left to individual state governments. Comparably, 40 percent said the federal government should determine abortion laws and 20 percent said they didn’t know which level of government it should be decided by.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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