Donald Trump says he will vote against abortion rights in Florida

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Donald Trump said he would vote against a Florida constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights, heightening tensions over an issue that has rattled Democrats and threatened his White House bid.

The former Republican president has sent mixed signals and avoided taking a stance on the proposed amendment, which will appear on the state’s ballot next month. November Election.

But on Friday, he told Fox News he would vote “no” on the measure, which would protect abortion rights up to viability and override a law signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in Trump’s home state that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Mr. Trump said that while he disagreed with the six-week ban because “you need more time,” the Democrats had “extreme” abortion policies. “It’s just a ridiculous situation where you can have an abortion in the ninth month,” he said.

The former president was caught between the need to maintain the support of conservative, religious voters who were staunchly opposed to abortion and the urgent political need to win over moderate and independent voters who supported abortion. abortion rights.

Trump and other Republicans have been on the defensive on the abortion issue since a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, including three justices he appointed during his presidency, rolled back nationwide abortion rights in 2022. That has prompted Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country to pass increasingly strict abortion laws, including a six-week abortion ban in Florida.

Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans oppose such strict measures, and Democrats, including Trump’s rival for the White House, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, have repeatedly criticized Trump on abortion rights — and raised concerns that other reproductive methods, including in vitro fertilization and contraception, could be at risk if he is re-elected.

Earlier this week, Trump rushed to announce that he would guarantee funding for in vitro fertilization procedures, and on Thursday he suggested that in Florida, he would vote to ensure that abortions are not limited to the first six weeks of pregnancy.

But the comment sparked a backlash from the right, forcing him to clarify his opposition to the amendment on Friday.

Harris said in a statement that with his comments Friday on Fox News, Trump had “just made his position on abortion clear: he will vote to maintain an abortion ban so extreme that it applies before many women even know they are pregnant.”

“I believe women should be able to make their own health care decisions and believe the government should never come between women and their doctors,” Harris added.

Trump’s struggles to define his stance on reproductive rights come after his campaign criticized Harris for shifting her stance on a number of issues, including health care, energy and immigration, in an effort to appeal to moderate voters.

Trump’s latest comments on abortion came hours before he was set to speak at a national conference in Washington for Moms for Liberty, a conservative women’s group. The Florida-based political organization was founded to oppose mask mandates and Covid-19 vaccinations and is now campaigning to prevent public schools from teaching about LGBTQ identity and structural racism, among other issues.

Tiffany Justice, the group’s co-founder, told the Financial Times early Friday that Trump “truly understands and cares about parents and parental rights” and urged anyone who “has a problem” with his stance on abortion to consider the Democrats’ stance.

“Just wait until you see Harris-[Tim] “The Walz ticket, how anti-life they are,” Justice said. “People need to understand, we need to move the country forward, we need to come together to do that, and if there’s anything we can do together, it’s our children and their health, safety, and development.”