Trump on Post-Roe Abortion Chaos: ‘People Are Absolutely Thrilled’

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·3 min read
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Donald Trump continues to claim that Americans are positively over the moon about the destruction of reproductive rights — but he couldn’t be more wrong.

During a Wednesday rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the former president once again bragged about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, and ending the federal right to abortion.

“Basically the states decide on abortion, and people are absolutely thrilled with the way that’s going on,” Trump told a crowd of supporters.

“From the great legal experts to everybody — Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives — they wanted to get abortion out of the federal government. Everybody wanted that, that was uniform,” Trump fantasized.

Most Americans are not “thrilled” by the destruction of abortion rights in the United States. In reality, reproductive rights are one of the weakest points of the Republican party’s 2024 platform, and the former president has been scrambling to salvage the damage that’s already been done.

Last month, Trump released a video attempting to clarify that in the aftermath of Roe’s demise, his view is that “the states will determine” their own abortion policies, “by vote or legislation or perhaps both.”

“Whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” he added. The statement was a decisive pivot from his support for a national 15-week abortion ban earlier this year.

The statement drew mild backlash from anti-abortion groups and conservative religious demographics, who likely view the recalibration as what it is: a short term strategy to combat criticism of Trump’s abortion policy in a crucial election year.

Trump contradicted his new states-rights stance days after making it when he said the Arizona Supreme Court went too far by enacting an 1864 abortion ban, and that the issue would be “straightened out.” The state Supreme Court’s decision and the ensuing backlash is emblematic of the chaotic upheaval of abortion law across America since the overturning of Roe. Days before the Arizona’s Supreme Court’s decision, the Florida Supreme Court green-lit a near-total abortion ban in the Sunshine State, which had become the only state in the South offering care after 12 weeks.

In virtually every state where abortion rights have been put on the ballot, voters have protected reproductive rights. In red states that have attempted to further restrict access to comprehensive reproductive health care — or where trigger bans went into effect in the aftermath of Roe — studies have already shown an increase in adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Florida, Maryland, and New York are all expected to have voter-driven abortion rights measures on the ballot in November, and a slew of other states are working to approve their own measures.

One such state is Arizona, where the Civil War-era law that placed a near-total ban on abortion is still in effect. The only exceptions to the law are narrowly defined allowances to protect the life of a pregnant person and the legislation carries a penalty of up to five years in prison for abortion providers.

On Wednesday, Arizona Senate Democrats voted to repeal the ban with the support of two Republicans who defected from their party bloc. The repeal is expected to be signed by the state’s Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs.

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