Former President Donald Trump has discussed supporting a national 16-week abortion ban, according to a Friday report from The New York Times.
Trump reportedly said that if he were to win the 2024 presidential election, he would support a 16-week abortion ban nationwide with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant person, according to two people close to Trump who spoke with the Times. The idea of a 16-week ban falls out of line with abortion restrictions that other conservatives have pushed at the state level, including six-week and 15-week abortion bans.
The former president reportedly said in a private conversation shared with the Times that he likes the idea of a 16-week federal ban because it’s an “even” four months. He also reportedly said that he will not consider any vice presidential candidate who does not support exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother.
The Trump campaign denied the Times’ report, calling it “fake news” in a press release.
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,” said Karoline Leavitt, a press secretary for the Trump campaign.
“President Trump appointed strong Constitutionalist federal judges and Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the decision back to the states, which others have tried to do for over 50 years,” Leavitt said. “Joe Biden and virtually every Democrat in Congress is on the record supporting radical on-demand abortion up until the moment of birth, and after birth, as well as using American tax dollars to fund the killing of the most vulnerable.”
Trump has previously shied away from discussing abortion, likely in an attempt to appeal to a wider group of voters. Big Republican losses in the past two years have signaled that extreme anti-abortion policies are not popular on a national level. Trump himself has even attributed his party’s setbacks in the 2022 midterms to candidates’ extreme stance on abortion.
“We strongly agree with President Trump on protecting babies from abortion violence at 16 weeks when they feel pain,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the national anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a Friday statement.
Nearly 75% of voters in a 2023 Change Research survey said that recent abortion restrictions have gone too far, including 51% of those who voted for Trump in 2020.
“We all knew exactly who Donald Trump was—his actions proved it. He is a liar, and this confirms Trump can and will ban abortion nationwide, even without the support of Congress,” read a statement from Mini Timmaraju, the president of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL.
“He will try to hide his intent and spin his own words, but we won’t let him get away with it. … It’s up to us to return Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House so we can restore our right to abortion and expand access.”