Trump says Republicans always wanted to leave abortion law to states. That's false.
Donald Trump is playing down the prospect of nationwide abortion restrictions, falsely saying Republicans have long sought to leave abortion law to states.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is playing down the prospect of nationwide abortion restrictions, falsely saying Republicans have long sought to leave abortion law to the states.
“Sending this Issue back to the States was the Policy of the Republican Party and Conservatives for over 50 years, due to States’ Rights and 10th Amendment, and only happened because of the Justices I proudly Nominated and got Confirmed,” Trump wrote on social media. It was one of many posts and statements in which he has made that claim amid national backlash to the ruling the Supreme Court he built issued to end federal abortion rights in 2022 and a recent, unpopular Alabama court decision that embryos are children.
Trump's latest claim is belied by a long history of his party’s fighting to restrict abortion nationally.
In fact, it would come as news to then-President Trump, who in 2018 championed legislation in Congress to criminalize abortion nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy. At the time, he called a 20-week ban “important legislation that would protect our most vulnerable” and said it was “disappointing” that the bill failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Trump’s apparent shift comes as he seeks to neutralize the issue. He has publicly expressed fears that it could cost him the election, potentially “handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency.” Democrats say Trump is now lying and would sign bills to criminalize abortion if a GOP-led Congress passed them, which he hasn’t ruled out doing.
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