Former President Donald Trump said he would take his position on abortion “very soon,” nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.
In an interview with Fox News broadcast Sunday, the ex-president said he would like to make “both parties happy” as he seeks a second term in the White House.
Abortion is expected to be a top issue heading into the November election and has proven to be a huge motivator for Democrats and moderate voters.
Trump has privately expressed support for a 16-week nationwide ban on abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, The New York Times reported in February.
“I would like to see if we can make both sides happy,” Trump told Fox News in the Sunday interview.
Trump, in an interview with Fox News, said he would make a decision on his stance on abortion “very soon” and said he wanted to make “both sides happy.”
Trump has touted the appointment of three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The New York Times recently reported that the ex-president had privately expressed support for an abortion ban for 16 weeks.
On the campaign trail, Trump celebrated the overturning of the Roe decision and touted the appointment of three Supreme Court justices during his first term, which helped lead to the landmark decision being overturned in 2022.
“They did something that, in many ways, is extremely good,” Trump told Fox News.
He blasted Democrats, calling them “radical” on the issue.
But abortion rights divided Republicans during the 2024 presidential primaries.
While Trump praised the Supreme Court justices he appointed for overturning Roe v Wade, he also lashed out at his Republican opponents for their positions on abortion.
Last year, Trump called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of a six-week ban a “terrible mistake.”
Trump also refused to say during the primary whether he would support a federal ban on abortion, a position supported by several of his former Republican presidential opponents.
In an interview with NBC, Trump said he could “live with” banning abortion in some states.
Fourteen states have banned abortion completely following the overturning of Roe, with limited exceptions. Seven other states ban abortion between six and 18 weeks. Several states that have adopted bans have seen them upheld in court.
A sixteen-week national ban would further restrict abortion in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Republicans have suffered a string of losses in the 2022 midterms and special elections in recent years, attributed to the overturning of Roe.
Trump blamed the “abortion issue” for Republicans underperforming expectations in 2022.
When abortion rights have been placed on the ballot in the form of amendments in more than a handful of states since the 2022 decision, voters have come out in favor of abortion rights, even in red states like Kansas and Ohio.
Exit polls showed abortion was the number one issue in several battleground states in the midterms.
Democrats have used this situation to force Republicans to question their position on abortion in elections across the country.
President Biden’s re-election campaign has already released a series of abortion ads ahead of the November election.
The president has pledged to sign legislation to codify Roe if Congress sends him a bill, something that currently does not have enough support on the Hill.
President Biden has called on Congress to pass a bill to codify Roe v Wade, but Democrats lack the support to pass legislation.
Abortion rights advocates rally outside the Supreme Court on April 14, 2023. Abortion is expected to be a top issue in the 2024 election.
Abortion advocates participate in the “March for Life” on January 19, 2024 in Washington, DC
Vice President Kamala visited a series of states as she led the administration’s charge to protect abortion rights. Last week, she became the first vice president or president to visit an abortion clinic during her visit to Minnesota.
Trump was inconsistent on the issue before his first bid for the White House. As a New York businessman, he focused on abortion rights, but that changed once he began signaling his entry into politics as a Republican.
In 2016, Trump, then the Republican candidate, said in a television interview that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who had illegal abortions. His campaign at the time quickly set him back.
A poll conducted in early March by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one in eight voters said abortion was the most important issue to them in the 2024 election.
The majority of Americans – 58 percent – said they were opposed to a national ban on abortion after 16 weeks, although the majority of Republicans – 63 percent – said they were in favor.
The same poll found that two-thirds of the public, including 67 percent of independents, support a law guaranteeing the federal right to abortion.