Trump's current, former rivals condemn his position on abortion
Former President Donald Trump’s current and former rivals in the 2024 presidential election are criticizing his position on abortion while differing as to whether it is too restrictive or not restrictive enough.
On Monday, Trump posted a video on the social media platform Truth Social outlining his position on abortion heading into the 2024 election in which he is expected to be the Republican presidential nominee.
While expressing gratitude for the 2022 overturning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, a move that has led to several states banning or restricting abortion to the earliest stages of a pregnancy, the former president suggested that abortion laws should be decided on a state-by-state basis.
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President Joe Biden, Trump’s expected Democrat rival in the 2024 presidential election, released a video response to his opponent’s declaration that with Roe overturned, “the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state.” Biden maintained that “Donald Trump just endorsed every single state ban on reproductive care nationwide.”
“All across the country, women are being turned away from emergency rooms, or being forced to travel hundreds of miles or ask a judge just to get the basic care they need,” Biden claimed about access to abortion. He further condemned Trump’s “vision for this country,” warning that “if MAGA Republicans put a federal ban on his desk, he’d sign it.”
Describing Trump as “the reason Roe was ended,” Biden promised voters, “If you re-elect me, I’ll be the reason why it’s restored.” In a subsequent post on X, Biden suggested that “Donald Trump is worried that since he’s responsible for overturning Roe, the voters will hold him accountable.” The president expressed confidence that “they will.”
Terrisa Bukovinac, who is seeking the Democrat nomination for president on a pro-life platform, released a statement on Facebook after Trump’s Truth social post proclaiming that “Trump and Biden are both baby killers and if you vote for either of them you will be a collaborator with blood on your hands!”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served alongside Trump as his vice president for four years and briefly sought the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 primary before becoming the first major GOP candidate to drop out of the race last year, took to X Monday to condemn what he described as “President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life” as “a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.”
“By nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs and gave the pro-life movement the opportunity to compassionately support women and unborn children,” he recalled.
Pence suggested that the federal government had an obligation to enact pro-life legislation: “The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law.”
Additionally, Pence lamented that “today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life,” adding, “Republicans win on life when we speak the truth boldly and stand on the principle that we all know to be true — human life begins at conception and should be defended from womb to tomb.”
“However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center for American law in every state in this country,” Pence added.
As it stands, states have widely divergent policies in place on abortion following the overturning of Roe. Data compiled by the advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America show that 15 states have prohibited abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy with limited exceptions, two states ban abortions after six weeks gestation, two states restrict abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and one state has a 15-week abortion ban in place. Four other states have pro-life protections in litigation.
On the other hand, the pro-abortion advocacy group the Guttmacher Institute has identified 13 states where a right to obtain an abortion is protected prior to viability, referring to the stage in pregnancy where the baby has the ability to survive outside the womb. Four additional states and the District of Columbia ensure a right to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, while Michigan has a constitutional amendment in place that explicitly secures the right to an abortion.
Voters in Ohio approved a similar measure last year.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
