Donald Trump may be the human pinball machine of abortion views.
This week, the Republican presidential candidate made headlines when his running mate, JD Vance, said a potential Trump-Vance administration would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passes it in the future. Trump also claimed he does not think Florida’s six-week abortion ban gives enough time for mothers.
Those positions are just the latest chapter in Trump's long and wideranging history on the issue.
On October 24, 1999, Trump described himself as “very pro-choice.”
“I hate the concept of abortion,” he said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “But you still — I just believe in choice.”
Over the following years, Trump walked back those comments, saying he changed his opinion on abortion bans — something he reiterated in an April 11, 2011, interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, at a time he was toying with a presidential run, when he said he was “pro-life.”
“I changed my view a number of years ago,” he said.
Trump went even further in his opposition to abortion during his 2016 presidential run, telling Chris Matthews during a March 30, 2016, town hall on NBC News that he believed there should be consequences for women who get abortions:
“Do you believe in punishment for abortion?” Matthews asked him.
“There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said.
“For the woman?” Matthews asked.
“Yeah,” Trump responded.
After he was elected president, Trump frequently pushed for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. And in 2018, he backed a federal abortion ban that would have criminalized performing or attempting to perform an abortion on or after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a contrast to him saying two years earlier that “states will then make a determination” if Roe is overturned.
But after the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, with several of his justices voting in favor of ending the constitutional right to an abortion, Trump frequently shifted his views — particularly as he attempted to respond to Republicans underperforming in the midterm elections.
During a May 10, 2023, CNN town hall, Trump would not say whether he would sign a federal abortion ban into law if he returns to the White House:
“Some people are at six weeks. Some people are at three weeks, two weeks,” he said. “President Trump is going to make a determination, what he thinks is great for the country.”
In a September 17, 2023, interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump said, “you’re gonna come up with a number of weeks or months,” regarding the timeline for an abortion ban, but then said, “I don’t frankly care” whether abortion bans are handled federally or on the state level. And in the same interview, he flirted with a 15-week federal ban.
“People are starting to think of 15 weeks,” he said.
On April 8, 2024, Trump released a video that attempted to clarify his views:
“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.”
