Donald Trump in favor of a national restriction on abortion beyond a certain number of weeks

In an interview with Fox News, the presidential candidate recognized on Sunday the electoral risk of an overly conservative position on abortion.

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Donald Trump, Republican Party candidate for the American presidential election, during a meeting in Vandalia (Ohio), March 16, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

Donald Trump, Republican candidate for the American election, said he was in favor of a national ban on abortion beyond a certain number of weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to life of the mother, in an interview broadcast Sunday March 17 on the Fox News channel, a few days after securing the Republican nomination.

Asked about an article from New York Times in February reporting discussions with his campaign team on a proposal to prohibit abortion beyond 16 weeks of pregnancy (except in these three cases), the former president reaffirmed his satisfaction that his appointments to the Supreme Court allowed the reversal of case law in June 2022, which abolished the federal guarantee of this right. States now have complete freedom to legislate in this area.

A central theme of the campaign

While Joe Biden has made the protection of the right to abortion one of his campaign axes, Donald Trump has recognized the electoral risk of an overly conservative position on this subject. “I think we need the three exceptions, even if there are a few places where they don’t exist”he declared, without specifying after how many months he planned to make abortion illegal, but arguing that such a limit existed elsewhere in the world. “I will present a recommendation very soon and I believe that this recommendation will be accepted” by the party authorities, he added.

In each local referendum addressing the question of abortion since the Supreme Court ruling, conservatives have lost, even in states that are usually theirs, such as Ohio or Kansas. The former vice-president of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, who announced not to support him for the November election, also deplored on Sunday that he had not adopted a firmer position on abortion during the 2020 campaign. “I would like our candidate to approve a ban at least from 15 weeks”he declared on the CBS channel.


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