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Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would veto a federal abortion ban after previously declining to say whether he would do so.
“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of the their voters,” Trump wrote in an all-caps message he posted across social media platforms as his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), was pressed on the issue during the vice presidential debate.
The former president’s pledge comes after he publicly chided Vance for saying in late August that Trump, if reelected, would veto such a bill if it came to his desk. Trump, asked about his stance during his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in early September, said that he “didn’t discuss” the issue with Vance. (Trump had previously said he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban — but wouldn’t weigh in specifically on vetoing one.)
The Ohio senator later issued a mea culpa to his running mate, saying he had “learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and I have actually talked about an issue.”
Trump’s declaration is likely to upset the anti-abortion movement, which has had an uneasy relationship with Trump throughout the election over his pledge to leave the abortion issue to the states. Still, most anti-abortion advocates acknowledge Trump as the “most pro-life president,” because of his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices who were key to overturning Roe v. Wade, and are hopeful he will continue to support anti-abortion policies in office.
Trump’s announcement comes as Vance telegraphed a softer approach to abortion on the debate stage, suggesting repeatedly that Republicans are losing the rhetorical war on abortion access. Polling has repeatedly shown that Americans support some level of abortion access, though bans are now in effect in more than a third of states limiting access to the procedure in nearly all cases.
“We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said, adding that he wants the GOP to be a “pro-family” party.
Vance on Tuesday also quibbled with the moderators’ description of his previous support for a 15-week federal limit on abortion access as a “ban,” instead referring to it as a “minimum national standard.” One is the language used by the abortion-rights movement, while the other is used by anti-abortion groups, but they are effectively the same.
Trump, in his post, reiterated that he supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother and attacked Democrats who support allowing access to abortions later in pregnancy. He also again incorrectly said that Democrats support the “execution of the baby after birth,” when a baby is born alive after an attempted abortion.
During the debate, Walz also sought to highlight the sweeping effects of state abortion bans by highlighting the stories of women affected by them, including Amanda Zurowski, a Texas woman who was denied emergency abortion care at 18 weeks of pregnancy until she became septic. He also talked about Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky woman who miscarried after being impregnated by her stepfather at age 12 and who has become a key Harris surrogate.
Both candidates also spoke about Amber Nicole Thurman, the Georgia woman who died after a hospital delayed providing her emergency medical care after she took abortion pills.
Anti-abortion groups have tried to place the blame on the doctors who failed to provide care, and on the pills themselves, even as doctors fearful of losing their medical licenses or being thrown in jail have argued that state abortion laws are unclear on when they can provide emergency abortions.
