President Trump stated on Monday that abortion laws should be determined by individual states, marking his most definitive position to date on one of the most sensitive and divisive issues in American politics.
In a video on Truth social, Trump explained “My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state. Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.”
The president did not specify the number of weeks into a pregnancy at which he believed it would be appropriate to prohibit abortion, but he reaffirmed his backing for certain exceptions. Previously, he openly criticized six-week state abortion bans as “terrible” and acknowledged that the debate over the procedure has been a challenge for Republicans at the ballot box following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which removed federal abortion protections.
In his video, Trump asserted that “all legal scholars, both sides,” desired the termination of Roe v. Wade and contended that abortion is now “where everybody wanted it, from a legal standpoint.”
