Trump contradicts himself on abortion, searching for a winning message

Donald Trump announced Friday that he would be voting against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would make abortion legal until a fetus becomes viable.

But just a day earlier he appeared poised to do the opposite. When asked if he would vote for the measure - the only clear path to restoring abortion access in Florida, where abortion is banned after six weeks of pregnancy - he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

With two months to go until the election, Trump, who has taken credit for the fall of Roe v. Wade, is sending contradictory messages as he grapples with how to handle an issue many Democrats believe will help lead them to victory in November - trying to appear more moderate on abortion than much of his party without alienating his evangelical base.

In addition to his comments on Florida’s six-week ban, Trump also announced this week that he would make in vitro fertilization treatments free if reelected and declared that his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” His running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), pledged that Trump would veto a national abortion ban, even though Vance and many of Trump’s allies have previously backed such a measure.

Trump’s mixed signals were on display during his brief comments Friday about the Florida ballot measure, telling a Fox News reporter that he disagreed with the six-week ban, but then immediately adding that he would vote to preserve it. In doing so, he mischaracterized the measure, which he suggested would allow abortions through the ninth month of pregnancy.

“I think six weeks you need more time. … At the same time the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation.”

He also falsely claimed that doctors can “execute” babies in some states after birth, an act that would be considered murder nationwide.

Trump’s efforts to sound more moderate on abortion have infuriated many Christian conservatives who saw a second Trump administration as an opportunity to further limit abortion access by fighting for a national ban and cracking down on abortion pills.

“God saved Trump from an assassin’s bullet. He did not save him to pivot on the issue of abortion and support a policy that leads to killing unborn children in the United States of America,” said Jason Rapert, a former state senator from Arkansas and the president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers.

But the Trump campaign is eager to win over moderate voters who support abortion rights, a group that has proved a formidable electoral force in the over two years since Roe was overturned. Many leading Republicans, including Trump himself, have publicly noted the backlash to abortion restrictions, with Trump announcing months ago that he believes the issue should be left to the states - though that position is effectively an endorsement of allowing the nearly two dozen state-imposed abortion bans that have taken effect since the fall of Roe to remain in place.

On Thursday night, hours after Trump’s comments on IVF and the Florida ban, a close Trump adviser took a call with six top female antiabortion leaders to hear their grievances and explain the campaign’s strategy on the issue, according to Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, one of the country’s largest antiabortion groups, who was on the call.

The adviser shared a poll of swing state voters, asking which candidate they trusted on abortion, Hawkins said. The poll, Hawkins recalled, showed Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris with a significant advantage.

The leading voice on abortion within the Biden administration, Harris has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign, planning a 50-stop “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour” that will kick off Tuesday in Trump’s hometown of Palm Beach, Fla., and promising to sign a bill codifying Roe.

Polls show that policies supportive of reproductive rights are widely popular even with many Republican voters. That is especially true of IVF, which came under threat after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this year that embryos created through IVF should be considered children, closing many IVF clinics across the state. Trump quickly voiced his support for IVF, and Alabama lawmakers voted to pass a bill protecting the procedure. Vance voted against a bill in the Senate earlier this summer that would have codified access to IVF, citing “religious liberty” reasons.

Trump on Thursday suggested that, under his administration, either the government or insurance companies would cover the full cost of IVF, a proposal that would come with an extraordinarily high price tag. He provided no details on how either approach would work in practice.

Democrats have pushed back vociferously on Trump’s efforts to cast himself as a moderate on abortion, seeking to remind voters of his role in the end of Roe and the rise of strict state-level bans.

Harris has emphasized the abortion policies laid out in Project 2025, a 900-page plan for the next Republican administration, which recommends blocking access to mifepristone, a key drug used in more than half of all abortions nationwide. The document, which Trump has largely disavowed despite close ties to many of its authors, also proposes ending abortions by mail, the only means of accessing abortion for many in rural areas or in states with bans.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on a call with reporters on behalf of the Harris campaign that Trump “thinks women are stupid, and that we can be gaslighted.”

“He seems to believe that he can do one thing when he talks to his extremist base and then turn around and smile at the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to see access to abortion and IVF protected and lie about it and we’ll believe it,” she continued. “That’s not happening.”

But some voters say they believe Trump’s recent statements on abortion are sincere.

In Nevada, 70-year-old Deborah Williams said she plans to vote for Trump in November despite her ardent support for abortion rights. Williams, a Republican who was a registered Democrat until 2018, said she was “madder than hell” when the Supreme Court overturned Roe - and sees Trump as partly responsible. Still, she said, she appreciates that he now seems to want to keep the federal government out of abortion policy.

“I like Trump saying it’s a state choice,” said Williams, who lives in a state where abortion is legal until 26 weeks of pregnancy. “Abortion here I think is perfect the way it is.”

Michelle Bouchard, a 62-year-old Republican precinct chair in Houston who backs abortion rights, said she is convinced that, deep down, Trump is “pro-choice.” She does not blame Trump for the near-total abortion ban in Texas, she said, despite his role in appointing the justices that allowed her home state to outlaw the procedure.

“He’s not going to do a bunch of stuff on abortion. I’m not worried about that,” she said, noting that Trump is politically savvy and knows abortion is a losing issue. “I don’t think he wants to touch that with a 10-foot pole, ever.”

Trump has a long record of shifting positions on abortion. Decades ago, he called himself “very pro-choice.” During his 2016 presidential bid, he said women who have abortions should be punished.

In his current campaign, he has said he will not use the Comstock Act, a long dormant law from the 1800s, to prohibit the mailing of medication abortion - but also suggested to reporters that he is open to revoking access to abortion pills. His campaign has repeatedly deflected questions about his plans with claims that the Supreme Court has “settled” the issue, though the court’s ruling this summer does not prevent a future administration from making the pills much harder to get.

A Trump spokesperson said in a statement that Trump has not waffled on abortion.

“President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House. President Trump also supports universal access to contraception and IVF,” said Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign.

Antiabortion leaders in interviews with The Washington Post strongly urged Trump to stop criticizing antiabortion wins, like Florida’s six-week ban, warning that he might lose their support. When pressed, however, they said they would be voting for Trump, because the alternative would be far worse for their cause.

While Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, says she is “devastated” by Trump’s recent comments, she has been urging her antiabortion advocates to be pragmatic and still vote for him. On Friday morning, she was brainstorming a chart to post on social media that would compare the number of abortions that would occur under a Trump administration vs. a Harris administration.

“Sometimes in the pro-life movement we have to vote against someone and not for someone,” Hawkins said. “We can’t let our anger with Donald Trump, our disappointment, cloud our judgment on this.”

Hawkins said she remains optimistic that a future Trump administration would further the antiabortion cause. She has been backchanneling with those close to Trump, she said, circulating a list of people who have strong antiabortion views to fill key Cabinet positions.

“Even if you have President Trump come in refusing to lift a finger, if we get good appointments, we will be able to stop some of the bleeding,” Hawkins said.