Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Florida’s six-week abortion ban, saying in an interview that it was “too short,” suggesting that he’d vote in favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn it later this year.
“I think the six weeks is too short, it has to be more time,” the former president told NBC News during a Michigan campaign stop.
He added, when pressed about his plans to vote on the amendment in November, that he would “be voting that we need more than six weeks.” He also expressed support for exceptions in the law for rape, incest, and when necessary to protect the life of the mother, according to NPR.
A Trump spokesperson clarified in a later statement that he “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”
Signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban went into effect in May. It allows exceptions for rape, incest, medical emergencies, and some “fatal fetal anomalies.” The state previously permitted abortions up to 15 weeks into pregnancy.
Although Trump initially celebrated his role in assembling the Supreme Court lineup that would make the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, he has since softened his stance on abortion in favor of a “leave it up to the states” approach.
“My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” he posted on Truth Social last week, a day after Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at him and the rest of the Republican Party for their stance on reproductive rights.
In her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris said that Republicans, led by Trump, would work to bring about a nationwide ban, limit access to birth control, and further block access to medication abortion.
“Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she said.
Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokesperson, told the Daily Beast in a statement that “Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide.
“Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid,” she said, adding that there was “only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Trump also said Thursday that he was interested in making in vitro fertilization free for American citizens, saying he would require insurance companies or the federal government to take on the costs associated with the treatment.
“Because we want more babies, to put it very nicely,” he explained, without providing additional details on how such a plan could realistically be rolled out.
The issue of in vitro fertilization was thrust onto the national stage after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos are people, and that destroying them could constitute a criminal offense. The decision caused an uproar across the country and caused several IVF providers to put a hold on the procedure in the state.
Alabama legislators scrambled to pass a measure protecting IVF treatment, after Trump called on them to “quickly find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama.” Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed the bill into law in March.
“No matter what Trump says, he is the leader of the party whose official platform uses language that could effectively ban IVF, and his Project 2025 uses that same language and details plans to make IVF ‘fully obsolete and ethically unthinkable,’” Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, told The Daily Beast in a statement.
“Republicans in Congress blocked Democrats’ efforts to protect IVF earlier this year, and Trump’s own running mate voted against it,” she continued. “He knows how unpopular the GOP’s attacks on fertility treatments are, and his comments are a desperate ploy to distract from the fact that he and his party have gutted reproductive freedom.”
The stop in Michigan, a key battleground state, was Trump’s third in a little more than a week. On his schedule later Thursday and into Friday were further stops in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, also both swing states.
