Former President Donald J. Trump said in a video statement Monday that abortion rights should be left to the states. Those comments came after months of mixed signals on an issue that he and his advisers feared could cost him dearly in the election.
Mr. Trump said his view was that states should decide through legislation, “and whatever they decide has to be the law of the land, and in this case the law of the state.” But he added that he was “very for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will be more conservative than others, and that will be it,” Trump said in the video he posted on his Truth Social website.
“At the end of the day, It’s all about the will of the people,” he added, falsely claiming that “all legal scholars” on “both sides” of the political spectrum want an end to Roe v. Wanted to see Wade. “That’s where we are right now and that’s what we want – the will of the people.”
Politically, Mr. Trump’s announcement that abortion should be left to the states will allow Democrats to provide him with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, including a six-week ban in Florida that Mr. Trump calls a “terrible mistake.” has .”
This messaging began on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, by President Biden’s campaign aides shortly after the video was released. And Mr. Trump’s statement underscores that Republicans across the country have been grappling with how to approach the issue of abortion for several months since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which reversed Roe v. Wade, in 2022 before the midterm elections.
In the video, Mr. Trump said he was “proudly the person in charge” of Roe v. Wade, who abolished the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years. Mr. Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars on both sides wanted and actually called for abolition.”
He then falsely claimed that Democrats want babies to be “executed after birth.”
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
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2024-04-08 12:28:03
www.nytimes.com
