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01-09-2024
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has said he will vote against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would protect abortion rights after facing backlash from conservative supporters.
The former president’s announcement came one day after an NBC News interview in which he appeared to support the measure, a statement that caused anti-abortion activists to openly criticize him.
On Friday, Trump told Fox News that he still thinks Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks is too strict.
However he said would still vote “no” on a measure that would amend the state’s constitution to protect abortion rights.
“You need more time than six weeks,” Trump said. “I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it.”
He then falsely alleged that Democrats in the US supported allowing abortions at any point during a pregnancy, which he used as his explanation for deciding to vote against the ballot measure in Florida as a voter in the state.
Abortion laws vary widely in states across the US, but procedures after 21 weeks of pregnancy are rare and are often related to foetal anomalies or threats to the mother’s life, according to the non-profit health organization KFF.
The Republican presidential nominee’s decision to vote against the Florida abortion measure comes just one day after he was asked by NBC News how he would vote.
“I think the six week is too short,” Trump said in the interview on Thursday. “It has to be more time. I told them that I want more weeks.”
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he said when pressed.
His Democratic opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, quickly responded to Trump’s announcement that he would support continuing Florida’s abortion ban as indicative of him continuing his anti-abortion stance.
“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant,” she said in a statement.
Trump’s comments open him to conservative criticism
Thursday’s comments in which Trump appeared to be open to voting in favor of the constitutional amendment were heavily criticized by leaders in the anti-abortion movement, which plays a critical role in shaping conservative politics in the US.
“If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost,” conservative pundit Erick Erickson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye, in part, to national abortion issues but for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far for too many.”
Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on X that Trump’s comments on reproductive rights, including on the six-week ban, “seem almost calculated to alienate prolife voters”.
“Pro-life Christian voters are going to have to think clearly, honestly, and soberly about our challenge in this election, starting at the top of the ticket,” he said.
After the Thursday NBC interview, the Trump campaign and his running mate JD Vance made public statements emphasizing that the former president had not yet made up his mind on the ballot initiative.
Vance said the former president will “make his own announcement on how he’s going to vote” on the Florida measure that will be based on “his own judgement”.
Trump has criticized Florida’s six-week abortion ban before. (Int’l News Desk)
