Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, said Saturday that Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress were to pass one.
Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” about GOP lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who would want Trump to advocate for and sign an abortion ban, Vance told moderator Kristen Welker that Trump has “explicitly” said he would veto a ban.
“I mean, if you’re not supporting it, as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” Vance argued.
Trump has changed his position on abortion policy over the years.
Asked on a tarmac in Atlanta in April whether he would sign a national abortion ban if it passed through Congress, he simply answered, “No.” But he didn’t clarify at the time what he considered a “ban.”
In 2018, when he was president, Trump called on the Senate to pass a 20-week limit on abortions that had already passed the House.
Last year, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.
“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” he said in a May 2023 social media post.
And as recently as March, Trump flirted with the notion of a 15-week federal abortion ban, telling a radio host that “the number of weeks now — people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable.”
“But people are really — even hard-liners are agreeing — seems to be 15 weeks, seems to be a number that people are agreeing at,” Trump added in the interview.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., responded to Vance's comments Sunday, telling Welker, "American women are not stupid."
She added, "We are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion for women all across this country."
