Maybe he thought this would be clever. Maybe he thought it would somehow “defuse” the issue for him. Or maybe he thought...well, maybe he didn’t think much at all.
As reported by Hannah Knowles and Marianne LeVine, writing for the Washington Post:
Former president Donald Trump, who has wavered between highlighting and downplaying his role in curtailing abortion rights, suggested Monday that the politically volatile issue should be left to states, after months of mixed signals about his position.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, 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 said in a video.
In the video Trump explicitly reiterates that he’s “proud” of being the “person responsible” for ending Roe v. Wade. He’s ”proud” he took away an established constitutional right enjoyed by all Americans, and put it in the hands of state legislatures instead.
Overruling Roe gave all Republican-controlled states license do as they saw fit. And we’ve all seen the results of what Trump is so “proud” of doing.
USAToday:
Researchers estimated there may have been more than 64,500 pregnancies resulting from rape in the 14 states that have enacted near-total abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, according to a research letter published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Other research has found the number of abortions fell to nearly zero in states with the strictest bans, which indicates people who were raped and became pregnant couldn't access abortions in their home state, even when there is an exception for rape, according to the study by researchers from Planned Parenthood of Montana, Hunter College in New York, Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts and the University of California, San Francisco.
The Guttmacher Institute:
In the chaos and confusion that erupted after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, abortion trigger bans that many states had on the books soon went into effect; many other states moved quickly to restrict care. As of mid-December 2023, 14 states are enforcing total bans with limited exceptions, including two new bans enforced this year. As a result, almost 18 million women of reproductive age, in addition to transgender and nonbinary people who may need an abortion, no longer have access to abortion care in their state of residence.
The 19th:
Reports of abuse involving reproductive coercion — actions that prevent someone from making crucial decisions about their body and reproductive health — nearly doubled in the yearlong period after Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to new data from the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH).
In Texas:
"Abortion bans are hindering or delaying necessary obstetrical care. And, contrary to their stated purpose of furthering life, the bans are exposing pregnant people to risks of death, injury, and illness, including loss of fertility — making it less likely that every family who wants to bring children into the world will be able to do so and survive the experience," the lawsuit states. "Medical professionals are now telling their patients that if they want to become pregnant, they should leave Texas.
In Florida:
With the Florida Supreme Court’s decision Monday night upholding an existing 15-week ban and allowing a strict new six-week ban to take effect in 30 days, the court has cut off nearly all abortion access across the South, where all other states have either implemented similar bans or outlawed abortion entirely since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Meanwhile, the myopic media is treating Trump’s latest statement as some sort of “compromise:”
The position reflects Trump’s long-stated desire to find a compromise on the issue that would appeal to a broad swath of voters. Trump had promised that he would “come together with all groups” to negotiate a deal on abortion that would “make both sides happy” and establish peace on the issue for the first time in more than five decades.
But cynically and conveniently omitting any acknowledgment of his prior calls for a national abortion ban is no “compromise.” It’s simply reiterating his stamp of approval for every Republican-controlled state to continue doing exactly what they’ve done (or worse) since Roe was overturned.
He did it, he knows he did it, and he’s bragged about the fact that he did it.
He said he’d do it back in 2016 before he was elected, and he’s said the same thing, over and over, since then.
Whatever he says now, out of political expediency or just plain fear, is meaningless.