Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would veto a federal abortion ban, after months of dodging questions on his abortion stance.
“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters (the will of the people!),” Trump wrote in an all-caps post on social media.
This is the first time the GOP presidential nominee has fully and directly answered the question of whether he would support a national abortion ban since the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022. During the presidential debate last month, Trump refused to say whether he would support a national ban despite being pressed several times by moderators and Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the social media post, Trump reiterated his support for exceptions to abortion bans including for rape, incest and life of the mother. He added that he does not support “the Democrats radical position of late term abortions” including in the “7th, 8th, or 9th month” and “the possibility of execution of the baby after birth.” Trump has repeated the false rhetoric that Democrats support murdering newborns; homicide is illegal in all 50 states and no Democrats are calling for that to change.
The former president posted the message as his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), was asked about his stance on reproductive rights during the vice presidential debate Tuesday night. Vance straight-up lied about his record on abortion, telling moderators that he never supported a federal abortion ban, although he did as recently as 2022.
It’s hard to take Trump at his word when he has such a long history of extreme comments on abortion care. It was reported earlier this year that Trump would not support a total national abortion ban, but possibly a 16-week national abortion ban. He later denied the report and told a group of reporters that he would not sign a federal abortion ban.
But Trump has repeatedly boasted about his role in reversing federal abortion protections after nominating three of the conservative justices who were critical in overturning the historic 1973 Roe decision. The former president also once endorsed punishing women who get abortions with jail time. He’s surrounded himself with some of the most extreme anti-abortion advocates in politics, including Vance who has called for federal restrictions on traveling for abortion care and advocated for the surveillance of women’s menstrual cycles to prevent them from getting abortions.
Project 2025, an extreme policy agenda for a possible second Trump term, includes several draconian anti-abortion policy proposals including enacting the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old anti-obscenity law that if enforced would criminalize sending abortion pills by mail and effectively create a backdoor national abortion ban. Although Trump has attempted to distance himself from the plan, many of his longtime allies are responsible for the 900-page document.