‘He Created This Problem’: In Muddle, Trump Talks Out Both Sides of his Mouth on Abortion
Republican shouldn't be trusted on reproductive healthcare, ACLU official says
Continuing to flounder politically, Donald Trump’s seems to be trying to have it both ways on the politically potent issue of abortion rights.
Trump, as president, specifically appointed three right-wing justices who helped overturn a national right to an abortion two years ago. However, running once again for the White House, he seems keenly aware that abortion and reproductive rights have become a powerful motivator for Democrats since the US Supreme Court struck down the 1973 decision Roe v Wade.
And now Trump appears to be flailing as he tries to equivocate on the issue in hopes that it won’t cut against him in the November election.
Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, is running for president on a promise to return nationwide abortion rights, if she is elected. His campaign against Harris has been struggling, overall, against the vice president since she took over at the top of the Democratic ticket in the wake of President Biden’s decision to drop out of his bid for reelection.
Voters in a number of states — including traditionally red states like Kansas and Ohio — have approved measures to guarantee access to abortion services in those states since the high court returned abortion rights to the state level in its bombshell 2022 decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Trump’s home state of Florida has a measure on the ballot this fall to guarantee abortion access and overturn the strict six-week ban signed by Republican Gov Ron DeSantis.
Trump was asked by an NBC News reporter how he personally intends to vote on that ballot initiative.
His responses have shown just how muddled he has been on abortion rights.
“I think the six weeks is too short. There has to be more time. And I’ve told them that I want more weeks,” Trump told the reporter, on-camera.
“So you’ll vote in favor of the amendment?” the reporter asked.
“I’m voting that — I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump replied.
However, he subsequently said he will vote against the Florida ballot measure after facing backlash from his right-wing, MAGA supporters. The former president’s announcement came one day after the NBC News interview.
He also tried to downplay the entire issue of abortion rights in a campaign event in the battleground state of Michigan.
In doing so, he indulged his habit of repeating falsehoods and disinformation, by making false claims about abortion.
“I just did an interview backstage with a very terrible person but she was ok, actually. NBC fake news. It was NBC fake news. She asked me about all sorts of things. She asked me about abortion and I handled it very nicely because you know what? That’s so overplayed. We have abortions. We have the whole thing brought back into the states where it belongs. That’s where everybody wanted it for years and years and years,” Trump said, falsely. “And they’re voting on it. And I happen to believe in the exceptions Ronald Reagan did, for life of the mother, rape, incest. The exceptions, probably 90 percent of the people do.
“But you know, I was just telling this reporter, the real problem and the real radicals on that issue are the Democrats, where you can have an abortion in the ninth month. And in six states you’re allowed to kill the baby after the baby is born,” he said, making more inaccurate claims.
“And you know, one of those states is Minnesota, where this Tampon Tim comes from,” Trump added, using an insulting term to describe the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz. “Kill the baby after the baby is born. So that’s no longer abortion. That’s called execution, right? You’re allowed to execute the baby after the baby — they’re the radical.”
None of that about legally killing babies after birth either is legal or has anything to do with actual abortion rights.
The assault on abortion rights also called into question access to fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with an Alabama state court ruling earlier this year.
“Let’s be clear, why are we talking about IVF? Why are we talking about the Florida abortion measure? Donald Trump, the arsonist, created a fire, we will trust the arsonist to put it out? He created this problem, his Supreme Court justices put us in this position, now you are asking the arsonist to come in and say, ‘You have to put out this fire here,’” said Faiz Shakir, national political director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “We have to move on from him and we are having too much of a rational debate about wow he came out with this interesting position.
“He is trying to win an election and he is lying to people and trying to deceive you, on abortion, he’s trying to move on Florida in every which way,” he added. “But for those who care about women’s rights, reproductive rights, just be clear who started this fire that we are all still living it.”
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