Whitmer lambastes Trump for his role in overturning Roe v. Wade

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer listens during a roundtable discussion in Flint, Michigan on reproductive health care on May 1, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

Ahead of former President Donald Trump continuing his battle to win Michigan by campaigning Wednesday in Saginaw County, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered her criticism of Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade.

Whitmer joined doctors, students and other women Wednesday in a roundtable discussion organized by President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign in Flint to talk about the consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade  in summer 2022. Whitmer has been the campaign’s top surrogate on abortion rights.

“I appreciate you being here. You shouldn’t have to always have these hard conversations. … Right now, we know It’s more important than ever. We’re seeing a six-week ban go into place in Florida today. We’re seeing a presidential candidate who has said he would leave the door open to a national abortion ban,” Whitmer said. “This is still very much a precarious moment, that our rights could be rolled back, not just the right to access abortion when we need it, but the right to access contraception, the right to create a family through IVF.” 

Trump has not said he’s sign a national abortion abortion ban, but Democrats have stressed it’s important to look at his track record on abortion.

As president, Trump secured a right-wing supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court, having the opportunity to appoint three justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All three voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision Trump recently called an achievement.

“Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights, especially since I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and, in fact, demanded be ended: Roe v. Wade. They wanted it ended,” Trump said in a video statement on April 8. 

With the federal right to an abortion gone, Trump added in his April 8 statements that abortion ought to be left up to state governments.

“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” Trump said in April. “At the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself, do what’s for your children, do what’s right for our country, and vote. So important to vote.”

But Whitmer said after the roundtable that no one should buy what Trump is saying, adding he gladly takes credit for doctors not being permitted to provide health care to women and he takes credit for all the lives lost because of it.

“We cannot make any assumption where he really is. He will do whatever is in his own best interest, which is what he’s shown us over and over again, whether it’s sending a mob to the United States Capitol [on Jan. 6, 2021] or appointing people to the Supreme Court that are going to rip these rights away. Trump did this. That’s why we are in this mess in the first place,” Whitmer said.

Yesterday Time magazine released an interview with Trump in which he was asked: “Do you think women should be able to get the abortion pill mifepristone?” — the pill used in the majority of abortions nationwide.

Trump responded, “I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain. I’m not gonna say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I’ll be releasing it probably over the next week.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a roundtable discussion in Flint, Michigan on reproductive health care on May 1, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (left) and Jessica Romanosky (right) participate in a roundtable discussion in Flint, Michigan on reproductive health care on May 1, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

In the same Time interview, Trump was asked several times if federal legislation to ban abortion came across his desk if he would sign it, but his answers came down to saying that because there aren’t currently the votes for such a measure federally, it’s a non-starter.

“I won’t have to commit to it because it’ll never — number one, it’ll never happen. Number two, it’s about states’ rights. You don’t want to go back into the federal government,” Trump said.

Whitmer contends that just as Trump delivered the final blow to Roe v. Wade, he would deliver a federal ban on abortion if he wins in November. She said during the roundtable that it’s important to look at what presidential candidates have done to either support or harm abortion access. 

“He won’t give you a straight answer. In every interview he says something a little bit different. His position has evolved 15 times in 15 months,” Whitmer said. “You cannot trust anything that Donald Trump says when it comes to a woman’s ability to make her own decisions about her body.”

The post Whitmer lambastes Trump for his role in overturning Roe v. Wade appeared first on Michigan Advance.