US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday that abortion rights should be left in the hands of states across the country, aligning himself with the Supreme Court's 2022 decision which revoked the constitutional right to the procedure, but refusing to call for the national ban favored by anti-abortion activists.
Trump was once pro-choice before becoming a national political figure in 2015, but then as president he appointed three conservatives to the Supreme Court who helped overturn the long-standing national abortion ruling. almost 50 years.
For several months he has hesitated about how to address the controversial issue before the November elections, while his opponent, Democratic President Joe Biden, supports abortion rights and blames Trump for the Supreme Court decision.
Trump had claimed he could negotiate a deal on abortion that would “make both sides happy,” perhaps a ban on the procedure after 15 or 16 weeks of conception. Polls show that Americans generally support abortion rights, but often disagree with the details of any restrictions.
Trump said in a video on his Truth Social media site that each of the country's 50 states – through state legislative action or election referendums – must decide, and that “what they decide should be the law of the land, and in “In this case, the law of the state.”
But he added that he was “strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” a position that some abortion opponents oppose while others support.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have [medidas] more conservative than others, and that's what they will be,” Trump said. “At the end of the day, it's about the will of the people. “That's where we are now and that's what we want: the will of the people.”
Trump said he “strongly” supports access to in vitro fertilization for “couples who are trying to have a baby.” “What could be more beautiful or better than that?” he asked himself.
Fourteen states have already banned abortion and two others have stopped it if six weeks have passed after conception, a point before many women know they are pregnant. Instead, voters in several states, including Republican-majority ones, have decided in referendums to codify the right to abortion in their state constitutions.
In Photos | Abortion rights further divide the United States
Firearms, education, the pandemic and even the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential elections. There are many issues that divide two increasingly distant Americas; a situation that the Supreme Court's ruling against the right to abortion threatens to further aggravate.
Trump's position prompted an immediate rebuke from one of the United States' leading anti-abortion rights groups, which had urged Trump to adopt a 15-week national ban.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, reiterated in a statement the group's commitment to “defeating President Biden” and congressional Democrats, but also condemned Trump's decision.
“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump's position,” said Dannenfelser, who thought Trump would call for a 15-week ban. “Saying the issue is 'go back to the states' cedes the national debate to Democrats who are working tirelessly to enact legislation that mandates abortion during all nine months of pregnancy.”
Since the Supreme Court overturned the abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade 1973, Democratic candidates have won numerous elections by focusing on the issue and Trump's appointment of three conservative judges.
In a lengthy response to Trump's video statement on Monday, Biden said: “Trump is struggling, he's worried that because he's responsible for overturning Roe, voters will hold him accountable in 2024. Well, I've got news for Donald. . “They're going to do it.”
“Having created chaos by overturning Roe, he's trying to say, 'Oh, it doesn't matter,'” Biden said, referring to the former Republican president.
Since the Supreme Court decision, despite predictions to the contrary, the number of abortions in the United States has increased, to 1,026,700 last year, the highest total in more than a decade, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports access to abortion.
While the number of abortions has dropped to almost none in states with bans, many women have traveled to neighboring states where the procedure is still legal, or obtained abortion-inducing drugs to end their pregnancies.
Researchers say medical abortions, rather than surgical abortions, now account for 63% of pregnancy terminations in the US.
The Supreme Court recently heard arguments about the legality and availability of using mifepristone as part of a two-drug combination to end a pregnancy. The court is expected to rule at the end of June.
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