Former President Trump offered few details about his stance on abortion during the campaign, despite being criticized by Democrats for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
Trump said the fate of abortion should be left to individual states and refused to take a position on a possible federal abortion ban being pushed by allies including Sen. Lindsey Graham of Lausanne.
He has previously criticized states that have six-week abortion bans, and last year urged Republican candidates not to take a hard line on the issue, saying it would be “very hard to win an election” if they did.
But Trump’s running mates have taken harder lines than the president, advocating beliefs and enacting laws that are unpopular with many voters. Trump has said he will announce his running mate around the time of the Republican National Convention in mid-July.
Below are the positions on abortion of the three leading candidates in the next presidential election, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (Republican), Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (Republican), and Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Republican).
Doug Burgum
As governor of North Dakota, Burgum signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion bills last year, banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The law, approved overwhelmingly by the state Legislature, makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Burgum ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination last summer, saying he supported overturning Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, just like Trump, but said he would not sign a federal abortion ban if elected, instead arguing that states should decide their own abortion policies.
“A bill that passes in North Dakota would never pass in California or New York and it probably wouldn’t pass in Minnesota. That’s why I’ve said publicly that I will not sign any federal anti-abortion legislation,” Burgum said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in July 2023.
Marco Rubio
Rubio, a veteran senator who faced off against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, co-sponsored a bill with Graham to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“I’ve always been pro-life,” Rubio told reporters in September 2022, explaining his support for the bill. “You have to ask Democrats what restrictions they support … Democrats are not going to vote for any restrictions on abortion.”
when CBS News Questions In August 2022, the vote will be on whether to support a total ban on abortion, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking. Rubio is While he personally favored such a ban, he realized it was a minority opinion, so he said he would vote to allow exceptions due to political realities and supported such a ban at the state level.
The Florida senator last month appeared to avoid a question about whether he agreed with President Trump’s opposition to a nationwide abortion ban.
“Well, he won’t sign it. [a national abortion ban] “Because there’s no way to pass a bill,” he told NBC News in May. “I’ve never made the case that there are 60 votes in the Senate, 60 votes in the House or anything in between.”
In the same interview, he appeared to evade a follow-up question about his thoughts on President Trump, who called Florida’s six-week abortion ban a “terrible thing, a terrible mistake.”
“Again, I’m pro-life, so I support legislation that saves the lives of unborn children. Other people have different opinions about what the law should be,” Rubio said. “That law you’re referring to was passed by the elected officials of the state of Florida. Representatives must go back to their voters every two years, and senators must go back to the polls every four years.”
J.D. Vance
Vance is a staunch supporter of abortion restrictions, but also supports allowing exceptions in cases such as rape.
Vance said last year that Ohio’s move to pass abortion rights legislation last fall was a “bruising blow” to abortion opponents like himself.
“For pro-lifers, last night was a shock. I’m not going to sugar coat it,” he wrote to X in November. “We need to recognize how little voters trust us (Republicans) on this issue. Unplanned pregnancies are scary. At best, they bring social scorn and thousands of dollars in unexpected medical bills. We need people to see us as pro-lifers, not anti-abortion.”
In 2022, Vance Supporting “minimum national standards” They have called for restrictions on abortion and have also put forward proposals to restrict access to abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
when he was asked on CBS News last month. Vance followed President Trump’s belief that it should be up to states to decide what they want a national minimum standard on abortion.
“First of all, I think we have to acknowledge that political realities are really motivating a lot of these considerations. What Donald Trump has said, very much in line with what I said on the campaign trail, is that abortion policy is largely decided at the state level,” he said.
“And actually, relative to his perspective, this is a difficult issue and in this new environment where this issue has been pushed back to democratic lawmakers, I think we need to let the public debate and decide this very difficult issue,” he added.
“I’m pro-life. I want to save as many babies as possible. And of course, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say that late-term abortions should not be possible, with reasonable exceptions.”
Vance has expressed mixed feelings about the federal ban on abortion. he told CNN. Republicans need to embrace federal legislation that includes a 15-week ban with exceptions.
But Ohio Republicans Also, He cited what he called the “political realities” surrounding the issue.
“If you give people the choice between restricting abortion early in pregnancy with exceptions or supporting the right to choose, the anti-abortion position can win. If you give people a heartbeat bill with no exceptions, you lose 65-35.” he wrote last November.
