Donald Trump shifted his position on abortion Tuesday, saying that he would veto a federal abortion ban if he won the election, after declining to say if he would or not last month.
The former president made the announcement in a post on Truth Social during the vice-presidential debate between his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
In all-caps he wrote, “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!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.”
In response to Trump’s statement, the Harris campaign have said that he is trying to “rewrite his own abortion position.”
An campaign email shared with Newsweek said: “Donald Trump appears to have already forgotten, but during his debate just a few weeks ago he was given no fewer than three separate opportunities to tell the American people whether he would veto a national abortion ban if one crossed his desk.”
“He dodged repeatedly. The American people know where Donald Trump stands.”
During September’s presidential debate, Trump would not say whether he would veto a national ban. When asked directly by the moderator, he said: “Well I won’t have to because it won’t happen.”
Trump also said in his Truth Social post that “I DO NOT SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS RADICAL POSITION OF LATE TERM ABORTION LIKE, AS AN EXAMPLE, IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH OR, IN CASE THERE IS ANY QUESTION, THE POSSIBILITY OF EXECUTION OF THE BABY AFTER BIRTH. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”
Vice President Kamala Harris has continually pushed back against claims that Democrats support abortions until birth. In a 2023 interview, she described the GOP claims as a “mischaracterization.”
Roe v. Wade guaranteed abortion access up to the point of “viability.” This can fall between 20 to 24 weeks. According to data from the CDC, less than 1 per cent of abortions were performed after 21 weeks in 2020. Under Roe v. Wade, the latest permitted abortion would be at five months, and Trump’s claims of seven-, eight- and nine-month abortions are unsubstantiated.
The suggestion from Trump in his post that babies are being executed after birth is false. He made similar claims during the presidential debate, and was fact checked by the moderators.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump’s claims on Truth Social came as Vance discussed abortion during the vice presidential debate, and said he has a close friend who had an abortion.
“I grew up in a working-class family in a neighborhood where I knew a lot of young women who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they feel like they didn’t have any other options,” Vance said.
‘We’ve got to do so much better of a job at the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly, just don’t trust us,’ he said.
During the debate, Vance advocated for state-by-state abortion laws.
Tim Walz countered that reproductive rights are a “basic right,” for women and that these should not be determined, “by geography.”
“This is a very simple proposition: These are women’s decisions,” Walz said. “We trust women.”
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What Has Trump Said About Abortion in the Past?
Trump’s position on abortion has changed over the years. In a 1999 NBC interview Trump said that “I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But still, I just believe in choice.”
Later, he shifted to a more anti-abortion stance, and as president appointed three conversative justices to the Supreme Court who would go on to contribute to the Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a woman’s legal right to have an abortion under the U.S. Constitution.
Speaking about the overturning of Roe v. Wade on Fox News, Trump said: “I did it. I’m proud to have done it.”
Back in August, Trump sparked fury from anti-abortion conservatives when he described Florida’s six-week abortion ban as “too short.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
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