Trump signals support for 15-week national abortion ban
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[March 21, 2024]
By Doina Chiacu and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
said he was leaning toward a 15-week national ban on abortion but
supports exceptions for rape, incest and saving the life of the mother
because "you have to win elections."
Abortion promises to be a galvanizing issue for some voters in the 2024
presidential election in which Trump will try to unseat Democratic
President Joe Biden.
A call for a 15-week national ban is likely to displease both sides of
the abortion debate, with conservative groups unhappy with what they
view as an overly permissive time limit and abortion-rights activists
opposing the idea of any kind of national ban.
The former Republican president, whose three conservative appointees to
the U.S. Supreme Court secured the majority needed to overturn Roe v.
Wade in 2022, has not been specific on whether he would sign a national
ban into law.
In a call-in radio interview on Tuesday, he came close.
"The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15. And I'm thinking in
terms of that. And it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable.
But people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15
weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at," Trump said on
the "Sid & Friends in the Morning" show on WABC.
Trump said he backed exceptions to a ban on abortion when it involved
rape, incest or saving the life of the mother, which he said the vast
majority of Republicans support.
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Trump said he tells Republicans who push a harder line: "Here's the
problem, you have to win elections. And otherwise, you'd be right back
where you started."
The Biden campaign has taken aim at Republican curbs on reproductive
rights in states after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe ruling that
recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion. Voter backlash
was widely credited with limiting Republican gains in the congressional
elections that followed.
The Supreme Court's action allowed the matter to be decided on a
state-by-state basis, and in response, Republicans have issued
restrictive abortion laws in nearly two dozen states.
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Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald
Trump hosts a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome,
Georgia, U.S. March 9, 2024. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer/File Photo
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The New York Times reported last month that Trump has privately
expressed support for a 16-week ban.
While Trump has argued for months that the six-week ban some states
have enacted is overly harsh and politically toxic, he was reluctant
to clarify his position regarding a national ban during his push for
the Republican nomination when some rivals called for a more
restrictive approach.
Abortion-rights groups have been warning that Republicans would
attempt to institute a national ban if they won the White House
after Roe v. Wade fell - and Trump's support for one likely will
spur their advocacy and fundraising.
“Time and again, Donald Trump has shown us who he is — and we
believe him. These latest comments reaffirm what we’ve long known:
if given the chance, he will enact a national ban on abortion," said
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, the group
formerly known as NARAL.
Democrats see the issue as a potential difference-maker in the
coming presidential and congressional elections in November.
"Women are being hurt today by Trump and his allies' actions," the
Biden campaign said in a statement on Wednesday in response to
Trump's interview.
The anti-abortion group Students for Life issued a statement urging
Trump not to support such a federal ban, terming it a "bridge to
nowhere" and arguing it would allow too many abortions to still take
place.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and James Oliphant; Editing
by Colleen Jenkins, Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)
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