Trump’s Ever-Flipping Stance on Abortion, Explained (As Best As Possible)

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump appeared to suggest he would consider restricting access to mifepristone, a pill used in medical abortions. A day later, his campaign violently backtracked on Trump’s statement, saying the former president had misunderstood the issue.

Trump’s first term’s record on reproductive rights is clear: His three Supreme Court nominations led directly to the overturning of the Constitution. Roe v. WadeBut as that record has become a political liability, the former president has remained evasive about how far he would go to restrict access to abortion in a post-conflict country.Roe deer United States. And this week, he further confused the issue.

At a press conference Thursday, a reporter asked Trump, “Would you ask the FDA, for example, to revoke access to mifepristone?” referring to one of two pills used in medication abortions. Drugs like mifepristone are now used in most abortions and have allowed people to circumvent some bans across the country.

“Sure, you could do things that would … complement, absolutely,” Trump responded. “And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to vote, and all I want to do is give everybody the right to vote. The votes are happening right now,” he added.

It’s an answer that, like many of Trump’s statements, is opaque. Given the wording of the question, he seems to acknowledge that instead of a national abortion ban, the federal government can do other “things” to “supplement” state restrictions. Trump didn’t specify which of these proposals he would pursue, but his ambiguity led many to interpret his answer as meaning that he would at least be open to limiting access to the abortion pill.

In a statement to NBC News clarifying her remarks, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted that interpretation, saying some of the questions asked during the briefing were “difficult to hear” and that the former president stood by the position he expressed during a debate earlier this year. “His position on mifepristone remains the same: The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously on the issue and the case is settled,” Leavitt said in the statement.

This confusion, and the resulting corrections, raise an important question ahead of Election Day: Where does Trump really stand on abortion? The answers, ultimately, could have major implications for citizens’ access to reproductive health care, including abortion pills, in the United States.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeatedly said that states should determine abortion laws and that he supports exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is threatened. As Leavitt noted, he also supported the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss a challenge to access to mifepristone on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. “The Supreme Court just upheld the abortion pill, and I agree with their decision to do that, and I’m not going to block it,” he said during the June presidential debate on CNN.

Trump has stopped short of supporting a federal abortion ban as part of his 2024 campaign platform.

“I think now that we have abortion where everybody wants it legally, the states will determine that by vote or by law, or maybe both. And whatever they decide, it has to be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a video released on Truth Social in April.

In July, the Republican National Committee adjusted its policy platform to reflect Trump’s views, abandoning the support of many Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives for a federal abortion ban. This stance is intended to ease some of the pressure the Republican Party has faced on the issue — Americans generally support some access to abortion. But it also seeks to obscure how it might dismantle abortion rights in other ways.

Although he expressed a more moderate position, Trump nevertheless touted his role in the Supreme Court’s decision. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationwhich overturned the long-standing right to abortion guaranteed by Roe deerpossible. That decision, issued by the Supreme Court in 2022, saw the three Trump-appointed justices concur in a majority — and has since allowed many states to approve harsh restrictions on reproductive health care.

“After 50 years of failure, with no one coming close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May 2023. “Without me, there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever the deadline was finally agreed upon.”

During his first term, Trump also supported a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks — and said he would sign it if Congress approved it.

While Trump has said he doesn’t support a ban this time around, it’s also not the only way he can restrict abortion at the federal level. And while he hasn’t publicly committed to seeking further restrictions, many Republicans — including his allies — are pushing for the party to adopt additional restrictions, particularly on medication abortions.

Abortion rights advocates have long called on the FDA to reverse its approval of mifepristone, and it’s one of the proposals outlined in Project 2025, a GOP political wish list promoted by the Heritage Foundation and other Trump allies. (Trump has tried to distance himself from the document, with mixed success.)

Trump’s recent comments have been interpreted by some as giving some leeway to consider these ideas. And despite his statements that abortion policy is a matter for states to decide, according to a January 2024 Washington Post article, Trump has also privately expressed interest in “Washington’s role” on the issue.

If Trump wins and his administration decides the federal government has a role to play, the executive branch could go after medication abortions. Mifepristone can be obtained by mail and telemedicine, two avenues that some conservatives hope a second Trump administration would limit in the future.

One approach is to ask the FDA to take steps to restrict the use of mifepristone. Another is to ask the Department of Health and Human Services to require in-person doctor visits to obtain abortion pills. And a third is to ask the Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act, which criminalizes sending abortion pills through the mail.

Despite his attempts to take less extreme positions on the issue — likely out of fear of turning away moderate women voters who turned out in recent elections — Trump’s latest comments suggest he doesn’t yet have a simple answer on medication abortion, and are a reminder that he could consider tougher policies if he wins in November.