Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday dismissed a report as “fake news” that he was privately considering backing a federal 16-week abortion ban.
The New York Times reported that Trump told advisers that a 16-week federal abortion ban would be appropriate, as long as it included exceptions for rape, incest or preserving the life of the mother.
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate an agreement that everyone would be happy with,” national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to reporters.
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally
President Donald Trump remains hesitant to publicly support a federal abortion ban.
Republicans have suffered repeated political losses on the abortion issue since Roe v. Wade. Since then, Trump remains reluctant to publicly express his opinion on a federal abortion ban, preferring instead to float the idea of an agreement between pro-life and pro-choice activists.
“I would sit down with both sides and negotiate something and we would end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,” he said in an interview with NBC in September, when asked about the issue.
In the same interview, Trump criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for signing a six-week abortion ban when he was then running against the former president for the Republican nomination.
“I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” Trump said at the time.
Trump frequently touts the fact that thanks to his Supreme Court appointments, Roe v. Wade was overturned, a long-standing goal for pro-life activists, returning the abortion issue to the states.
President Donald Trump and Judge Amy Coney Barrett
United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh (R)
Republican governors like DeSantis have taken the opportunity to sign more restrictive abortion laws, while Democrats continue to score pro-choice victories across the country.
During the Republican primaries, the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America urged Republican candidates to support a 15-week federal abortion ban, but Trump was reluctant to detail his position on abortion.
The group responded to the New York Times report by backing the idea of a 16-week ban.
“We fully agree with President Donald Trump on protecting babies from the violence of abortion at 16 weeks when they are in pain,” they wrote in a statement. “The majority of Americans support this compassionate position.”
Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices during his first term as president, tipping the scales against Roe v. Wade.
Trump was also the first American president to personally and publicly address the national March for Life, taking the stage at the 2020 annual rally against the Roe v. Wade of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC.
In January, he said he was “proud” to have helped overturn the decision.
“(They) were trying to end Roe v. Wade, and I did it, and I’m proud that I did it,” he said in an interview on Fox News in January. “No one else was going to accomplish that but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”
The Biden campaign issued a statement from the president condemning Trump’s position.
‘The choice is very simple. Kamala and I will restore Roe v. Wade and we will make it the law of the land once again. “Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide,” Biden said. “That’s what’s at stake this November.”