Former President Donald Trump hit back at claims that he wants to monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute them for having illegal abortions.
“I never said that ‘some states may choose to monitor women’s pregnancies to possibly prosecute for violating any abortion bans.’ This was made up by Democrats and the Fake News Media,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday.
Trump, however, did not indicate he’d block states from taking actions against pregnant women.
The statement comes as the former president attempts to walk a fine line on the issue of abortion — with a position that neither turns off moderate women, nor angers his conservative anti-abortion rights base.
The claim stems from an interview that Trump gave to Time Magazine published last week, during which he was asked about whether states “should monitor women’s pregnancies.”
“I think they might do that. Again, you’ll have to speak to the individual states. Look, Roe v. Wade was all about bringing it back to the states,” Trump said in that interview.
He was quickly slammed by top Democrats and multiple media outlets who interpreted his remarks to mean that he wouldn’t stop states from inspecting women’s pregnancies.
Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris swung through Jacksonville, Fla., and highlighted the 45th president’s comments.
“Just this week in an interview, [Trump] said states have the right to monitor pregnant women to enforce these bans and states have the right to punish pregnant women for seeking out abortion care,” she said.
Her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff is slated to convene a panel to discuss abortion on Tuesday during a visit to Atlanta.
Trump has been trying to navigate the thorny politics of abortion, grappling with a conservative base that wants to dramatically restrict the procedure to safeguard unborn children and public opposition to total bans.
Last month, the former president revealed that he wouldn’t back a federal ban on abortion and instead defer to the states.
Trump reiterated that Sunday.
“After 50 years, Abortion is now up to the States, where everybody, Republican and Democrat, plus all legal scholars and experts, have wanted it to be,” he added.
“It is all working, will never go back to the Federal Government, and our Country will soon start uniting on this long contentious issue.
“At the same time, nobody wants to see abortion in the 7th, 8th, or 9th month or, execution after birth, as some states, like the former Democrat Governor of Virginia said, was permitted.”
Notably, last month despite wanting to relegate abortion to the states, Trump simultaneously admonished Arizona’s near-total abortion ban, which its state legislature recently moved to reverse.
Democrats see abortion as an Achilles’ heel for Trump and Republicans ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), for instance, suggested that abortion will be a major rallying cry for Democrats going forward.
“If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall,” Jeffries told CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
Trump had famously appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that ultimately opted to overturn the precedents first established in Roe v. Wade that guaranteed a national right to abortion access.
But Trump’s campaign is conveying optimism about the former president’s prospects of roaring back into the White House.
On Saturday, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced that April’s fundraising totals will surpass $76 million, up from $65.6 million in March.
The haul is still below the $90 million figure that President Biden’s operation announced back in March.
“President Donald J. Trump is not only winning across every battleground state, but we are raising the resources necessary to deliver a victory in November,” Trump Campaign senior advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said.
“With half of funds raised coming from small-dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized. The Republican Party is united, and voters nationwide are ready to FIRE Joe Biden and elect President Donald J. Trump.”
