Trump tests waters on 15-week abortion ban 

Former President Trump is teasing an announcement on a federal abortion ban if he is reelected, opening himself up to an onslaught of attacks from Democrats who see it as a galvanizing issue for their voters.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said Sunday on Fox News he would be making a decision “pretty soon” on an abortion proposal. On Tuesday, he suggested he’s weighing support for a 15-week ban, even as he suggested he could “bring the country together” on the deeply polarizing issue.

“The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable,” Trump said on a New York-based radio show. “But people are really, even hard-liners are agreeing … 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at. But I’ll make that announcement at the appropriate time.”

The comments were the latest example of Trump flirting with support for a national abortion ban, prompting a fresh wave of attacks from Democrats who have hammered the former president on the issue and made it central to the 2024 presidential race.

“Republicans own abortion bans,” Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said. “They also own bans for [in vitro fertilization] and even birth control, all issues that hugely galvanize Democrats, Independents, and some Republicans in opposition.” 

Setzer predicted the issue will help candidates like Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), “who needs a fired up base” in what is shaping up to be a tight reelection campaign. 

“When Republicans talk about plans to restrict women’s health, it reminds me of that children’s book — ‘Please don’t throw me into the briar patch!’” she added, referring to the use of reverse psychology to reach a desired outcome.

Still, she predicted that Trump will “try to have it both ways” on abortion. “He knows the issue is a political loser for Republicans, but he can’t offend his friends in the evangelical community or on the Supreme Court, and that ship has sailed anyway.” 

The Biden campaign on Wednesday issued a statement from Amanda Zurawski, who had a life-threatening infection after doctors in Texas initially refused to perform an abortion while she was 18 weeks pregnant.

“Trump isn’t ‘signaling,’ he isn’t ‘suggesting,’ he isn’t  ‘leaning toward’ anything — he is actively planning to ban abortion nationwide if he’s elected, inflicting the same cruelty and chaos I’ve experienced on the entire country,” she said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”

Democrats have ridden a wave of electoral momentum since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority — including three Trump appointees — overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, clearing the way for GOP-led states to restrict abortion access. 

Democrats outperformed expectations in the midterms, won both chambers of the Virginia state Legislature and the Kentucky governor’s mansion in 2023 and have seen Kansas and Ohio vote in favor of referendums to protect abortion rights. In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and fellow Republicans unsuccessfully tried to rally voters around a 15-week abortion ban. 

Trump has over the past year repeatedly avoided answering whether he would sign a national abortion ban if reelected. He has blamed Republicans’ messaging on abortion for their election struggles in the 2022 midterms, and he called a Florida law restricting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy a “terrible mistake.”

He has largely brushed off pressure from outside groups to publicly support an abortion ban, arguing it’s more important for Republicans to win elections so they can enact anti-abortion policies they favor. Evangelical voters did not punish Trump for his lack of a hard-line stance, as he dominated the Iowa caucuses and swept through the GOP primaries, losing only Washington, D.C., and Vermont.

But Republican officials have argued since the 2022 midterms the party’s candidates need to recalibrate their message on abortion to put Democrats on the defensive.

“To me, there seems to be a general consensus that 15 weeks isn’t necessarily terrible,” said Shermichael Singleton, a Republican strategist, who pointed to a Gallup poll last year in which 69 percent of voters said abortion should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. 

“The problem for Republicans is, how do we communicate that? How do you get over the hump from Democrats’ consistent and persistent messaging that Republicans have been anti-reproductive rights altogether?”

Singleton added that Trump is “maybe testing the waters on it.” 

“How do people reply? And we’ll have to see over time,” he said. Still, Singleton added, “It is a bit nerve-wracking because I don’t think Republicans have handled the messaging on this very well.” 

Some anti-abortion groups have downplayed the significance of supporting a ban after a certain number of weeks, noting such legislation is unlikely to pass a narrowly divided Congress. Instead, those groups have argued the policies a conservative administration could enact are more significant.

“What we know from President Trump is he put together the strongest pro-life administration in history and enacted the strongest pro-life policies in history, so that’s a good indication of, I believe, how President Trump would address these issues in a second term,” Roger Severino, a former Trump administration health official, told The Hill last month. 

Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to Trump during his first White House term, said last week Republicans should advocate for a consensus position on abortion, such as a “federal minimum standard” of 15 weeks, while supporting exceptions for cases of rape, incest and life of the mother. Trump has said he supports such exceptions.

“I’m very realistic on this,” Conway said at a Politico health care summit. “I think that we should show compassion. We should reflect consensus, and then I think that also requires concession.”