Abortion rights should be left up to US states to decide, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday, effectively rejecting a national abortion ban after months of mixed signals on one of the November election’s most contentious issues.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both,” the likely Republican presidential nominee said in a video posted on his Truth Social network.
“And whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state.”
His statement came after questions had swirled for weeks over what his stance would be on the issue.
They were fueled by a New York Times article in February that said he had told advisers he liked the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban but was hesitant to address it publicly lest he alienate socially conservative supporters.
A shock ruling by the US Supreme Court in 2022 — boosted by three Trump nominees — overturned Roe v Wade, which enshrined the federal right to abortion, and left it to states to establish their own laws on reproductive rights.
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Some have enacted near-total bans while others, like Maryland, passed laws to enshrine abortion rights. Many conservatives hope a national ban could override laws like Maryland’s.
But a comfortable majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in most cases, according to extensive polling, and around half of states have measures in place to protect access.
