Former President Donald Trump twice refused to say whether he would veto a national abortion ban during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. But even as that will likely give a new argument to Democrats and abortion rights advocates, prominent anti-abortion activists were still left unimpressed by his performance, saying they don’t believe his nonanswer means he’s aligned with them on a national ban.
“I think he made a decision to stay away from any abortion ban discussion,” Abby Johnson, a prominent anti-abortion activist, told NOTUS. “I don’t think that means he’s necessarily more open to a federal pro-life law. I think it is an indication that he understands how important the pro-life vote is.”
Rather than answering the question, Trump said he “wouldn’t have to” veto a ban because Republicans could not get enough votes to pass such a bill.
The former president said it doesn’t matter if he’s opposed to a federal abortion ban “because the issue has now been taken over by the states.”
It was a major moment in the debate, given how big of an issue abortion is in this election. But for Trump, it was a crucial test — abortion and reproductive health have been liabilities for Republicans since the Dobbs decision, and Trump has frequently changed his stance on these issues.
Even Vice President Kamala Harris pressed Trump on whether he’d veto a ban, saying that his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, said he would do so.
“I didn’t discuss it with JD,” Trump responded. “I don’t mind if he has a certain view.” He then pivoted back to his argument that “we don’t have to discuss it because” Congress would “never” be able to pass one.
One prominent anti-abortion activist familiar with the Trump campaign’s thinking on abortion, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they “have heard no indication that anything has changed” on Trump’s position and that his stance on abortion remains a “states-only one.”
The former president had called for federal abortion restrictions in his previous presidential campaigns, but this election cycle, he has said that only states should be able to decide on abortion. He denounced Florida’s six-week ban, saying it was too short, but after heavy criticism from anti-abortion leaders, he said he would vote against the abortion rights ballot initiative in the state. (If the measure fails, that would effectively uphold the state’s six-week ban.)
Trump’s waffling has angered abortion opponents, with some calling on the anti-abortion movement overall to not vote for the president in November.
Some in the anti-abortion movement, though, seem enthused by what they heard from Trump in the debate.
Mark Lee Dickson, an anti-abortion advocate who helped enact Texas’ citizen-enforced six-week ban, told NOTUS the question on whether he’d veto an abortion ban was “a trap question meant to hurt Trump one way or the other” and he “did not fall for the trap.”
“I believe President Trump is listening to his pro-life voter base,” Dickson said. “He knows we want to see abortion end in America. Pro-life leaders have been very clear about what we want, and I think President Trump will work towards helping us reach that end.”
Democrats had been expecting this issue to come up, preemptively bracing themselves for falsehoods spread by Trump. Rep. Diana DeGette, co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, told NOTUS before the debate that “Donald Trump lies.”
He did make untrue statements during the debate about Democrats’ positions on abortion, including that they supported abortions after birth.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL, told NOTUS during the debate that Trump was refusing to commit to veto a national ban “because he will sign one.” She added that his stance that abortion should be left up to the states is “just deflection.”
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Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.