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national abortion ban
'Whatever They Decide': Trump Backs Eradication of Abortion Rights by States
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is "responsible for the harm and chaos caused by Republicans' abortion bans in the states, and all he is saying is that he wants more of it," said one rights advocate.
Apr 08, 2024
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released a video Monday bragging about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and expressing support for state-level efforts to ban abortion, declaring that "whatever they decide" must be allowed to stand.
In the four-minute video, Trump said he was "proudly the person responsible" for ending Roe and falsely claimed that "all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded" that Roe be overturned.
The 2022 decision rolled back decades of precedent and opened the floodgates to draconian abortion bans in Republican-led states across the country, including a six-week ban in Trump's home state of Florida that's set to take effect next month.
"Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that's what they will be," said Trump. "You must follow your heart—or, in many cases, your religion or your faith."
While Trump did not explicitly endorse a national limit on abortion, reproductive rights advocates said his latest celebration of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—a ruling backed by three Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices—and his past comments make clear that he would support a federal ban if reelected in November.
Notably, Trump did not say whether he would veto legislation that would enact a federal ban on abortion.
The former president said he is "strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother"—but such exceptions have proven
woefully insufficient in the face of near-total abortion bans enacted by Texas and other GOP-led states.
"Trump is a liar who orchestrated the end of Roe v. Wade—and he's so proud of it that he bragged about it again in his statement," Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in response to Trump's remarks, which came in the form of a video posted to Truth Social.
"He knows that publicly supporting bans loses voters, so he deployed dangerous disinformation about abortion in order to distract from the truth about what he will do if elected," said Timmaraju, alluding to Trump's false claim that Democrats support "execution after birth."
Timmaraju, who criticized corporate media outlets over their benign portrayal of the former president's stated position, added that Trump is "responsible for the harm and chaos caused by Republicans' abortion bans in the states, and all he is saying is that he wants more of it."
"The stakes couldn't be higher," Timmaraju continued, "and we need to elect reproductive freedom majorities in Congress and send President Biden and Vice President Harris back to the White House to restore the federal right to abortion and expand access."
Correction:
1. Trump brags about overturning Roe- AGAIN
2. Lies about the Democrats position & continues to push dangerous misinformation
3. By endorsing state limits, supports the most extreme bans in the nation https://t.co/zRytrWE5Jm
— Mini Timmaraju (@mintimm) April 8, 2024
Trump has pledged for months to announce a position on abortion that would "make both sides happy," and he previously floated a 15-week ban at the national level.
But his statement Monday angered both reproductive rights advocates and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the nation's leading anti-abortion organization. The group supports a national ban on abortion and has said it views any presidential candidate who declines to back a federal ban as "disqualified" for the White House.
"We are deeply disappointed in President Trump's position," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
But Dannenfelser signaled that the group would still throw its weight behind Trump in November, vowing to "work tirelessly" to defeat incumbent President Joe Biden.
Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of the American public supports abortion rights, a finding bolstered by state-level ballot victories in the wake of Dobbs—including in GOP-controlled states.
In a Monday statement, Biden said that Trump "made it clear once again today that he is—more than anyone in America—the person responsible for ending Roe v. Wade."
"He is—more than anyone in America—responsible for creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America since the Dobbs decision," the president said. "Trump once said women must be punished for seeking reproductive health care – and he's gotten his wish. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and left to travel hundreds of miles for health care. In states like Florida, abortion will likely soon be illegal before many women know they're pregnant."
"Trump is scrambling," Biden added. "He's worried that since he's the one responsible for overturning
Roe the voters will hold him accountable in 2024. Well, I have news for Donald. They will."
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Warren Says Trump Will 'Try to Ban Abortion Nationwide' If He Regains Power
"Donald Trump is proud that he overturned Roe v. Wade, he's proud he ripped away a fundamental freedom from millions of women," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Mar 18, 2024
Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned Sunday that Donald Trump will aggressively pursue a national abortion ban if elected to another term after the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee boasted about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade—a move that opened the floodgates for draconian attacks on reproductive rights across the country.
Trump nominated three of the five Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe in 2022, and he stacked lower federal courts with far-right extremists.
In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, Trump said the justices "did something that from a lot of standpoints is extremely good" and repeated commonplace right-wing lies that Democrats support infanticide—claims that are frequently used to justify further rollbacks of reproductive freedoms. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case brought by right-wing groups that could dramatically weaken access to medication abortion.
The former president said he will be deciding "pretty soon" on a specific abortion policy for his 2024 campaign for the White House. The New York Timesreported last month that Trump has told advisers and allies that he "likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother."
Asked during the Fox News interview whether he thinks a 16-week abortion ban would be "politically acceptable," Trump responded, "We're gonna find out."
Trump's campaign previously dismissed the Times reporting as "fake news."
Trump on if a national 16 week abortion ban would be politically acceptable: "We're gonna find out."
He then lies about Democrats supporting the murder of born babies. pic.twitter.com/B5e41m9ftm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2024
Warren (D-Mass.) said in response that "Donald Trump is proud that he overturned Roe v. Wade, he's proud he ripped away a fundamental freedom from millions of women, and if he regains power, he will go even further and try to ban abortion nationwide."
"By overturning Roe, Trump put judges and politicians in the driver's seat of women and their families' most personal healthcare decisions," said Warren. "He opened the door to even more extreme restrictions on our freedoms: criminalizing doctors, passing bans with no exceptions, and restricting access to IVF—and he brags about it."
"Trump said we're going to find out if the country will accept his plans for a national abortion ban, and he's right," the senator added. "He's going to find out this November when the majority of Americans who support reproductive freedom turn out to send President Biden and Vice President Harris back to the White House and remind Donald Trump that we will not go back—not now, not ever."
"As Project 2025 makes clear, opponents will not stop until abortion is banned and out of reach in all 50 states."
Right-wing groups, including the coalition known as Project 2025, have been working for months on a range of proposals that would further curtail reproductive freedoms at the federal level and undercut people's ability to receive basic medical care.
"In emerging plans that involve everything from the EPA to the Federal Trade Commission to the Postal Service, nearly 100 anti-abortion and conservative groups are mapping out ways the next president can use the sprawling federal bureaucracy to curb abortion access," Politicoreported last month. "Many of the policies they advocate are ones Trump implemented in his first term and President Joe Biden rescinded—rules that would have a far greater impact in a post-Roe landscape. Other items on the wish list are new, ranging from efforts to undo state and federal programs promoting access to abortion to a de facto national ban. But all have one thing in common: They don't require congressional approval."
Project 2025, a coalition of dozens of right-wing groups—including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and other anti-abortion organizations—is "drafting executive orders to roll back Biden-era policies that have expanded abortion access, such as making abortions available in some circumstances at VA hospitals," and "collecting resumes from conservative activists interested in becoming political appointees or career civil servants and training them to use overlooked levers of agency power to curb abortion access," according to Politico.
"Donald Trump is to blame for the ongoing abortion access crisis," Planned Parenthood Votes said in a statement earlier this month. "Because of his first-term actions, 21 states—and counting—now ban some or all abortion; and one in three women are blocked from access in their home states. As Project 2025 makes clear, opponents will not stop until abortion is banned and out of reach in all 50 states."
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AOC Warns of 'National Abortion Ban' if Supreme Court Upholds Mifepristone Ruling
The New York congresswoman called Friday's decision by a Trump-appointed federal judge invalidating the FDA's approval of the abortion medication "an extreme abuse of power" and "an extraordinary example of judicial overreach."
Apr 09, 2023
Progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned Sunday that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a right-wing federal judge's ruling banning access to abortion pills, "it would essentially institute a national abortion ban."
In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) doubled down on her earlier call for the Biden administration to ignore a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk—an appointee of former President Donald Trump—declaring the FDA's approval of mifepristone to be illegal.
The agency approved the medication, one of two drugs used for medically induced abortions, in 2000. Millions of people have safely used mifepristone since then, and in January the FDA announced it could be sold in retail pharmacies.
"The reality of our courts right now is very disturbing. This ruling is an extreme abuse of power. It is an extraordinary example of judicial overreach," Ocasio-Cortez told host Dana Bash. "I do not believe that the courts have the authority over the FDA that they just asserted and I do believe that it creates a crisis."
Clarence Thomas defends lavish vacations. Hear AOC's responsewww.youtube.com
"Once you start banning medication abortion, which represents the overwhelming number of abortions in the United States, then we are in extremely dangerous territory," Ocasio-Cortez argued.
Ocasio-Cortez added that if the Supreme Court affirms Kacsmaryk's ruling, "it would essentially institute a national abortion ban, because you have an extraordinary amount of states who have implemented surgical bans or bans after very early time periods."
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also appeared on "State of the Union" Sunday, telling Bash that "we want the courts to overturn this reckless decision."
"Everything is on the table. The president said that way back when the Dobbs decision came out. Every option is on the table," he added, referring to Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 2022 Supreme Court decision invalidating half a century of federal abortion rights.
On the same day as Kacsmaryk's decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice in Washington state issued a contradictory ruling that blocks the FDA from removing mifepristone from the market.
Ocasio-Cortez isn't the only congressional Democrat calling on the Biden administration to ignore the Texas ruling.
\u201cGOP are losing their mind over this, but there\u2019s precedent - including their own.\n\nCourts ordered Trump to fully restore DACA. They ignored it w/ Republican support.\n\nGOP operate in complete contempt for the law until they\u2019re in a position to shred Constitutional & human rights.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1681063423
"I think there's no basis for this ruling in law, and I think that the Biden administration can and must ignore the judge and keep mifepristone on the market and this medication available for every woman in America," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told KATU Friday.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the Justice Department "strongly disagrees" with Kacsmaryk's ruling and will appeal the decision.
On Saturday, more than 40 House Democrats urged President Joe Biden to "use all the tools at your disposal to protect access to abortion and reproductive healthcare."
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