Trump Floats National Abortion Ban After Claiming He’s ‘On the Side of Women’

After it was reported that Trump intends to support a national abortion ban, the Republican primary frontrunner floated the idea of a 15-week ban during a Fox News interview at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday.

When discussing support for in vitro fertilization (which GOP lawmakers claimed to support, then blocked a bill this week to protect IVF access nationwide), Trump insisted “we’re on the side of women.” Shortly after his declaration, the former president told host Sean Hannity, “More and more I’m hearing about 15 weeks. I haven’t decided yet.” Trump continued, “The number 15 is mentioned. I haven’t agreed to any number. I’m going to see. We want to take an issue that was very polarizing and get it settled and solved so everybody can be happy.”

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that the former president told advisers and allies that he favored the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. That stance would put Trump in the graces of Susan B. Anthony List, the powerful anti-abortion advocacy group, which has threatened to campaign against him if he does not endorse a national abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“Know what I like about 16?” Trump reportedly told a person who spoke with the Times. “It’s even. It’s four months.”

Inside his campaign, the news was immediately met with a scramble for damage control and inflamed some of the anti-abortion movement’s most uncompromising figures — who lashed out at Trump for being insufficiently “pro-life,” Rolling Stone reported last week.

Prior to the report, sources said Trump has told advisers that he wants to avoid announcing specific abortion policy positions, at least during this stage of the election cycle. This is largely due to his understanding that the dismantling of Roe v. Wade — which he often takes credit for — has become a grave political liability for Republicans.

“I wish I was surprised, but sadly, I can confidently say that all of us on this call saw this coming a mile away,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said of the the Times report during a call with with the press corps. “This is a man who is so proud of his role in overturning Roe v. Wade that he’s incessantly bragged about it on the campaign trail. Trump is a man who has called for punishment for women who get an abortion. He’s claimed credit for the chaos and cruelty happening across this country, even going as far as to say he is proud of it.”

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