Trump says he is ‘thinking in terms of’ backing 15-week federal abortion ban
By Kate Sullivan, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump is “thinking in terms of” supporting a 15-week federal abortion ban, he said in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable. But people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at. But I’ll make that announcement at the appropriate time,” Trump said in a radio interview with “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
Trump again reiterated his support for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger.
The former president told Fox News last month that he remained undecided about backing a federal abortion ban but said, “More and more I’m hearing about 15 weeks.” Over the weekend, he said in another interview with Fox News that he would make a decision “pretty soon” on whether to back a federal abortion ban.
President Joe Biden and his allies have attacked Trump over abortion as they seek to highlight the issue this year. Last month, after The New York Times reported that the former president had privately expressed support for a 16-week federal ban, Biden said Trump was trying to “rip away your rights” while casting himself as “running to protect them.”
A Trump campaign spokeswoman told CNN at the time that the former president had not committed to backing a national abortion ban. Trump would “sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement in response to the Times report.
Trump has been reluctant to stake out a clear position on abortion as he publicly acknowledges that the debate has plagued Republicans at the ballot box since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. He has criticized members of his own party over their messaging on the issue.
But Trump frequently touts his role in the elimination of federal abortion protections, which followed his appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted with the conservative majority in the decision to overturn Roe. He has said that restrictive abortion laws that have since been enacted across the country were only possible because Roe was overturned and has pointed to the reversal of the landmark abortion law as a key achievement of his administration.
Trump rankled anti-abortion activists when he previously criticized six-week state abortion bans as “too harsh.” The former president has stressed that Republicans “still have to win elections” and has pointed out that many GOP candidates who took hard-line stances on abortion post-Roe went on to lose their elections.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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