Trump continues to tinker with his stance on abortion and IVF less than 3 weeks from Election Day
With less than three weeks remaining until Election Day, former President Donald Trump continues to try to clarify his views on abortion and IVF treatments.
The Republican nominee sent mixed signals again this week when he said some states that are restricting abortion access are being “too tough,” though he didn’t specify which states.
“They’re too tough, too tough. And those are going to be redone because already there’s a movement in those states,” Trump said Tuesday, addressing an all-female audience at a Georgia town hall moderated by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.
As a Florida voter, Trump seemed to indicate on Aug. 29 his support for a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. A day later, he flip-flopped, saying he would not be voting in favor of it. Florida currently has a six-week abortion ban in place.
The issue of abortion has become an albatross for Republicans, even in red states, when it was on the ballot in the 2022 midterm elections. And national polling indicates that since Roe v. Wade was overturned over two years ago, broad support for abortion rights has only increased.
A May Gallup poll found that 85% of Americans think abortion should be legal in at least certain circumstances, while a June Associated Press/NORC poll found that 70% believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. And according to an April Yahoo News/YouGov poll, a growing majority of Americans want Congress to pass a law that restores Roe v. Wade protections.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has been highlighting Trump's stances on abortion on the campaign trail. At the Democratic National Convention, she said that Trump "and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress." During the presidential debate in September, Harris pounced at the chance to challenge Trump’s claim that overturning Roe was “what everybody wanted,” saying, “A 12- or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don’t want that.”
During the Fox News town hall on Tuesday, Trump also declared himself the “father of IVF,” though it’s unclear what exactly he meant by that comment. “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF, even more than them,” he said. “So, we’re totally in favor.”
Here’s what else Trump said in recent weeks and months about reproductive rights.
What Trump said about Florida’s 6-week abortion ban
Florida currently has a six-week ban on abortion, a point at which many women don’t know they are pregnant yet. When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the ban last September, Trump called it “a terrible mistake.”
Come November, Florida voters will vote on whether to preserve the right to abortion in the state constitution. Trump, who is a Florida voter, was asked by NBC News how he would vote on the ballot initiative that seeks to expand access to abortion.
“I think the six weeks is too short; there has to be more time," Trump said. "I've told them I want more weeks.” Although Trump did not explicitly say he would vote in favor of the measure, he said, "I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks."
The Trump campaign quickly walked back his statement after receiving backlash from conservative allies, like the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group.
“President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida; he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
On Friday, facing backlash from anti-abortion advocates, Trump reiterated his opposition to the six-week ban but also said he would oppose an amendment to Florida's constitution that would protect abortion access, which appears on the November ballot.
"You need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” he said in comments to Fox News, adding that he had decided to vote no on the Florida ballot measure.
What Trump has said about abortion in the past
Trump’s shifting position on abortion spans decades. Here’s a very brief timeline of his position on abortion, starting when he said he was “pro-choice.”
October 1999: “I am very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion,” Trump said in an NBC News Meet the Press interview. “I just believe in choice. Again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because there is some different attitude in some different parts of the country. ... I was raised in New York and grew up and worked and everything else in New York City. But I am strongly for choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion."
February 2011: When Trump was considering a 2012 run for the White House, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference and laid out his position on abortion. “I am pro-life," he said.
October 2016: During the 2016 election, Trump said he would appoint the necessary justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to get Roe v. Wade, which established the federal right to an abortion, overturned. During Trump’s White House tenure, he appointed three conservative justices: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. In June 2022, the 6-3 conservative majority Supreme Court overturned Roe in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
September 2023: Trump vaguely indicated on Meet the Press that he might compromise on abortion. “Let me just tell you what I’d do,” he said. “I’m going to come together with all groups, and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable.”
March 2024: Trump takes credit for eliminating Roe v. Wade. “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing,” Trump added.
April 2024: Trump announced that he believes the issue of abortion should be left to the states, despite earlier reports that he privately expressed support for a 16-week federal abortion ban.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social. “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.”
August 2024: Trump made a series of comments on reproductive rights. The day after the Democratic convention ended, on Aug. 23, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” His change in language signaled a change in his abortion views. Then, on Aug. 29, he proposed that the government and insurers pay for IVF treatments and said Florida’s six-week abortion ban was too short. The very next day, however, Trump said that he would vote to oppose a measure to expand abortion access.
What Trump has said about fertility treatments
In February, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that embryos were considered human beings under the law. Discarding embryos is an inherent part of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a type of fertility treatment. The decision caused an uproar because it would clear the way for wrongful death lawsuits across the state if an embryo were destroyed in the process. The ruling caused providers in Alabama to pause fertility treatments, leaving many patients in limbo.
Since then, IVF has become a politically fraught topic in this election cycle and a top issue for Democrats who say that the Republican-led abortion restrictions could further restrict IVF.
Following the ruling in February, Trump called on the Alabama Legislature to "quickly find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama." The state ultimately passed a law in March to protect the procedure.
On Aug. 29, Trump took IVF access to a new level, saying on the campaign trail that if reelected, he would not just protect the fertility procedure, but he would make either the government or insurance companies pay for it. He did not offer any specifics on how his plan would work.
Democrats say the Republican presidential nominee is trying to use the pledge of forcing insurers to pay for expensive IVF treatments as a ploy to get votes.