Trump Vows to Veto Federal Abortion Ban in Move to Win Trust
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump said he would block a federal abortion ban, his strongest denouncement yet of an issue where his opponent Kamala Harris has a wide trust lead with voters.
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Posting on social media during the vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz on Tuesday night, Trump said he “would not support a federal abortion ban under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it.”
Trump has repeatedly shifted his messaging on reproductive rights, and just last month during the presidential debate declined to say whether he would veto a federal ban, reiterating that it was a matter for the states. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of likely voters in swing states in September found 56% of voters trusted Harris more on abortion, while 32% said they trusted Trump. It’s a gap that’s been widening over the past three months.
Even Vance acknowledged that the issue has become fraught for the Republican party, saying that the American people “frankly just don’t trust us” on abortion. “My party has to do a much better job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue,” Vance said during his debate against Walz.
The US Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022, giving way to near-complete bans on abortion in some states. Trump has claimed credit for nominating three of the justices who overturned the 1973 decision that had made abortion available nationwide under certain circumstances.
Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, accused Trump of “trying to rewrite his record, words, and actions.” Voters will hold him accountable for his “record of ripping away women’s freedoms,” she said in a statement following the debate.
Vance during the debate said he didn’t support a national ban on abortion, despite saying in a 2022 podcast that he “would like abortion to be illegal nationally.”
“I want us as a Republican party to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word,” Vance said Tuesday, adding that he supports more affordable child care and fertility treatments.
(Updates with Harris spokesperson statement in sixth paragraph.)
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