Former President Donald Trump suggested he would be willing to support a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s life.
Trump weighed in on Tuesday, during an interview with WABC host Sid Rosenberg, what he would consider an appropriate threshold for the procedure, after he congratulated himself on the Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade in 2022, which came after he appointed three conservative justices to the high court during his presidency.
“As for the number of weeks, people agree on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that; something will come out that is very reasonable,” she said. “But everyone—even the hardliners—agrees, it seems, in 15 weeks. “I think it’s a number they agree on.”
Trump added that he would make an announcement about his support for a specific limit on abortion “at the appropriate time” before saying that that question should be left to the choice of the states.
“The issue of abortion, we returned it to the states,” Trump added, referring to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. “And everyone agrees, you’ve heard it for years, all the jurists on both sides agree that it’s a state issue. “It should not be a federal issue, but a state issue.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The former president’s statements constitute the clearest indication he has given to date about the limits on the right to abortion that he would be willing to support.
The New York Times reported last month that the former president privately told his advisers that he is in favor of banning abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy, which would include exceptions in cases of rape and incest and if life of the woman is in danger.
A source familiar with the conversations told NBC News at the time that Trump had raised the possibility of supporting a ban on abortion at 16 weeks in conversations with his advisers. However, another source stressed that the former president did not comment on a federal ban on abortion.
The Trump campaign had rejected the information, calling it fake news (fake news).
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate an agreement that everyone would be happy with,” the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement last month. “Joe Biden and virtually every Democrat in Congress has publicly supported radical abortion.”
