After pledging to ban abortion in 2016 and saying there should be “some sort of punishment” for women who have one, and after bragging repeatedly about personally ending Roe v. Wade, in two new statements over the past twelve hours Donald Trump is now telling supporters his latest stance on abortion is the states have been given the right to decide, without saying if he would sign a nationwide abortion ban – while insisting Republicans “have an obligation” to “win elections.”
Vanity Fair’s and MSNBC’s Molly Jong-Fast posted video of Trump in 2016 calling for punishment of women who have abortions.
In his latest video Trump opens with the importance of creating “strong, thriving and healthy American families.” He crosses many pro-life Republicans in saying he fully supports in-vitro fertilization (IVF) “for couples.” He brags, “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars both sides wanted and in fact demanded be ended. Roe v. Wade, they wanted it ended.”
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That last statement is false: not all legal scholars wanted Roe v. Wade ended. (Here’s just a small sample of those who did not.)
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wants it from a legal standpoint,” Trump claims, which is also false. “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.”
Trump also falsely claimed that Democrats support “execution after birth,” and added, “that’s exactly what it is. The baby is born the baby is executed after birth.”
Critics are suggesting what Trump did not say in his new statements is as important as what he did.
Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz writes: “Things Trump doesn’t say in the abortion statement:
1) Whether he’d veto an abortion ban
2) How Trump regulators would treat e.g. mifepristone.
3) How he’ll vote on the Florida abortion referendum.
4) Whether he will appoint judges whose rulings will further narrow abortion rights.”
“After testing out a federal 16-week abortion ban & then a 15-week abortion ban, Trump decides on ‘abortion should be left to the states.’ This has him fully embracing [overturn of] Roe, & total abortion bans in many states,” says SiriusXM’s Michelangelo Signorile. “It shows he’s completely boxed in, incoherent, scared of the issue.”
“In 2016 Trump pledged to ban abortion & punish anyone who gets one,” notes former Clinton White House cabinet secretary Robert Reich. “His various judicial picks voted to overturn Roe & ban mifepristone. He’s surrounded himself with sworn enemies of reproductive rights. Whatever he’s saying today, know that he will ban abortion given a chance.”
Critics are also blasting the mainstream media for repeating Trump’s words without providing a complete picture.
“At some point someone needs to ask: ‘If Republicans pass a 15 or 16 week abortion ban in Congress, will you sign it, or will you veto it?’,” Semafor’s Washington Editor Jordan Weissmann says. He also points to a New York Times article and writes, “this headline is incorrect. An accurate version would be: ‘Trump acknowledges abortion law up to states, does not explicitly say whether or not he’d sign a ban.’”
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Media Matters’ Gertz serves up more examples:
“The way the national mainstream media is rushing to repeat Trump’s claim that he is moderating his position on abortion—after he intentionally ensured the overturning of Roe v. Wade—sure is something,” observes Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman. “We have too many stenographers and too few truth-tellers.”
NBC News’ senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur adds even more context: “This is the key tension. SCOTUS didn’t just send abortion to states, it also opened the door for the federal government to pass laws—bans, restrictions or protections—that override state laws. Republicans have spent years readying federal abortion limits in anticipation of this.”
Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, pointing to a New York Times piece from February, explains: “One of Trump’s top lawyers has already said the plan is to stay quiet on abortion through the campaign—then use the Comstock Act to impose a nationwide abortion ban in 2025. Not only a ban on medication abortion, but ALL abortions, in all 50 states.”
Civil rights and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler also blasted the mainstream media.
“What Trump says is meaningless. Have you missed the last 10 years of political events? Trump will appoint judges who will and have stripped women of their right to reproductive health care. Stop helping Trump dodge accountability,” she writes. “There’s no limit to the amount of stupidity political journalists will engage in, chasing what a politician says rather than what he has done. There are a billion things IN TRUMP’S RECORD as President that are more reliable than anything that could come out of his mouth.”
Trump is also getting strong blowback from the right.
“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said, according to Politico. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is one the nation’s top anti-abortion groups.
Watch the video above or at this link.
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