In a recent interview, former President Donald Trump insisted that monitoring pregnant women’s health to check for abortions performed after a state’s legal prohibition is in place and prosecuting those who do so is a decision best left to individual states.
In a cover story published on Tuesday, Time magazine quoted Trump as saying, “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not,” in response to the question of whether he is comfortable with states prosecuting women who have abortions after the legal limit, which currently varies greatly by state. “It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”
Time further asked, “Do you think states should monitor women’s pregnancies so they can know if they’ve gotten an abortion after the ban?”
“I think they might do that. … You’ll have to speak to the individual states,” Trump retorted.
A prior response to the question of whether physicians ought to face consequences for performing abortions came from Trump, who described it as a “state’s rights issue.”
A question from Time on Trump’s support for an abortion referendum in Florida in November that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban was also repeatedly sidestepped, even as Trump reiterated his earlier assertion that he thought the deadline was “too severe.”
“I don’t tell you what I’m gonna vote for,” he stated. “I only tell you the state’s gonna make a determination.”
“You must follow your heart on this issue but remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly, a nation in decline … Always go by your heart. But we must win. We have to win, we are a failing nation,” he stated.
He has, however, also frequently credited himself with overturning Roe by citing the names of the three justices of the US Supreme Court who did so in 2022.
Additionally, he has criticized certain abortion laws that he believes to be excessive, such as Arizona’s Civil War-era prohibition, which was recently found to be lawful.
In an interview with Time, Trump backtracked from his previous declaration that he would not sign a measure that would “commit to” vetoing a federal abortion ban if it were passed by Congress.
“I won’t have to commit to it because it’ll never — No. 1, it’ll never happen, No. 2, it’s about states’ rights,” he stated to Time. “You don’t want to go back into the federal government. This was all about getting out of the federal government.”
Trump declined to say if he would veto a federal law that forbade the use of abortion drugs like mifepristone, citing the fact that states currently have the authority to decide such matters. On the other hand, he stated that he “probably” will “release” his “strong views” “over the next week.”
“I’m leaving everything up to the states. The states are going to be different. Some will say yes. Some will say no. Texas is different than Ohio,” he said.
