Former President Donald Trump’s campaign dismissed a report Friday as ‘fake news’ that he was privately considering backing a federal 16-week abortion ban.
The New York Times reported that Trump told his advisors that a federal 16-week abortion ban would be suitable, as long as it included exceptions for rape, incest, or preserving the life of a mother.
‘As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will 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 endorse a federal abortion ban
Republicans have suffered repeated political losses on the abortion issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since then, Trump remains reluctant to publicly state his opinion on a federal abortion ban, choosing instead to float the idea of a deal between pro-life and pro-choice activists.
‘I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something and we’ll 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 ban on abortion, as 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 trumpets the fact that thanks to his appointees to the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade was overturned, a long-time goal for pro-life activists, turning the issue of abortion back to the states.
President Donald Trump and Justice Amy Coney Barrett
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh (R)
Republican governors like DeSantis have used the opportunity to sign more restrictive abortion laws, while Democrats continue notching pro-choice victories across the country.
During the Republican primaries, anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America urged Republican candidates to support a federal 15-week abortion ban, but Trump was hesitant to detail his position on abortion.
The group responded to the New York Times report by endorsing the idea of a 16-week ban.
‘We strongly agree with President Donald Trump on protecting babies from abortion violence at 16 weeks when they feel pain,’ they wrote in a statement. ‘A majority of Americans support this compassionate position.’
Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices to the bench during his first term as president, swinging the balance of justices 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 annual rally in 2020 against the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in Washington, DC.
In January, he said he was ‘proud’ that he helped overturn the decision.
‘[T]hey were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it,’ he said in an interview on Fox News in January. ‘Nobody else was going to get that done 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 make it once again the law of the land. Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide,’ Biden said. ‘That is what is at stake this November.’