Former President Donald Trump has revealed that he will be voting no on a ballot measure in his home state of Florida this November that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban.The announcement follows less than a day after Trump sparked backlash from anti-abortion activists for suggesting that he was in favor of the ballot measure, known as Amendment 4. If passed, the amendment would enshrine abortion access in Florida’s constitution until fetal viability, which is usually reached around 24 weeks of pregnancy.Trump told Fox News Friday afternoon that he believes that restrictions on abortion should allow “more time than six weeks” but called Democrats “radical” for supporting “abortion in the ninth month” of pregnancy. He also repeated false claims that some Democratic-led states have laws “where you can actually execute the baby after birth.””All of that stuff is unacceptable so I will be voting no for that reason,” Trump said.In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Trump said that he thought the six-week ban, signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023, is too restrictive, adding, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”The comments quickly raised reactions from anti-abortion figures who have in the past rallied behind Trump, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, who wrote in a statement that any vote for Florida’s Amendment 4 “completely undermines” Trump’s past statements about opposing abortion after five months of pregnancy.Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later walked back the former president’s statements to NBC Thursday evening, saying in a statement that Trump had “not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.””President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House,” Leavitt added in a statement to Newsweek. Trump has faced pressure on both sides of the aisle over the issue of abortion. While Democrats often blame the former president for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, some conservatives have pushed for Trump to adopt plans to issue a national abortion ban if reelected in November.The former president has said that he does not support federal restrictions on abortions and that he believes the issue should be decided at the state level. Since Roe was overturned, 14 states have implemented an abortion ban, according to The New York Times. Several other states have instituted gestational limits for the procedure, such as the six-week ban in place in Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina.Abortion rights activists have argued against such gestational limits, stating that many women do not know if they are pregnant at six weeks. This issue of reproductive rights has also been a winning topic for Democrats since the fall of Roe, and public opinion polls show that most Americans support access to abortion. In a Pew Research study conducted in April, 63 percent of U.S. adults said that they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases.Nine states will vote on abortion rights in November, including in the critical swing states of Arizona and Nevada, where Trump is locked in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House.Harris’ team has leaned heavily into discussions around reproductive care while on the campaign trail, and supporters of the vice president have accused Trump and Republicans of having a “long history of hostility” to “women’s reproductive freedom,” including fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Trump said in the NBC News interview Thursday that his administration would mandate that the government or insurance companies cover the cost of fertility treatments.”American women are not stupid, and we know the only guarantee protection for IVF is a new national law, which Kamala Harris supports and Donald Trump opposes,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said during a press call for Harris’ campaign Friday morning.”Anyone who cares about IVF will vote for Kamala Harris for president and Democrats for Congress,” Warren added.Newsweek reached out to Harris’ campaign via email Friday for additional comment.Update 08/30/24, 5:57 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
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