BREAKING: Trump (again) says he supports an abortion ban
I don't want to say I told you so ... but I am willing
I’ll be real curious to see what placement this just-posted New York Times article is given in hard copies tomorrow:
I’m glad to see the Times break some news on a topic that isn’t getting enough campaign coverage. But also: of course Trump supports an abortion ban. As I noted last fall in response to the New York Times pretending Trump’s abortion position is some kind of mystery:
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he made a literally unprecedented promise during the third general election debate that he would appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he said women would have to be punished for seeking abortions. As president, he was the first president in history to attend the anti-abortion “March for Life,” he barred abortion advice at federally-funded clinics, he threatened to withhold federal funding from California if the state required insurance plans to cover abortion and, yep, he appointed three Supreme Court justices who provided the margin to overturn Roe v. Wade. And as he again runs for the presidency, he brags about being responsible for the end of Roe and says he is proud to have been “the most pro-life president” in American history.
[…]
The Times is hung up on the fact that Trump won’t specify the details of the ban he supports, missing the forest for the trees. Donald Trump supports an abortion ban. That’s the forest.
Well, it seems some of the details are coming into focus, too. The Times reports today:
Former President Donald J. Trump has told advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s deliberations.
But those details are in many ways just distractions from the key fact: Donald Trump supports an abortion ban. The 16-week part, for example? Not exactly well thought-out:
One thing Mr. Trump likes about a 16-week federal ban on abortions is that it’s a round number. “Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. “It’s even. It’s four months.”
If I’m being generous, I’d describe Trump’s embrace of 16 weeks as marketing. But I am not inclined to be generous to Donald Trump, so I will note that he is a fundamentally unserious and unintelligent person just picking a number out of a hat — and using that number to eliminate rights for millions of Americans.1
And the exceptions? Here’s Jessica Valenti on “The Exceptions Lie,” from 2022:
The bone they’re throwing women is completely useless. Exceptions for rape and incest—even the exceptions for the health and life of the pregnant person—are exemptions in name only.
After all, just look at what’s happening in Mississippi; despite the state’s abortion ban including a rape exception, doctors there are too afraid to provide victims with care. That isn’t an accident—it’s by design. Exceptions are deliberately vague and narrowly defined so that it’s near-impossible to use them.
Dan Pfeiffer notes Trump’s abortion ban is quite extreme:
Because this ban is 16 weeks instead of six weeks and will likely contain exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother, there is a possibility that the press will treat this as a “moderate” position.
Of course, this is absolutely absurd. Nothing is moderate about a 16-week ban — even one with exceptions. For everyone living in states with abortion access, it would mean less freedom, rights, and self-determination.
I agree with Dan on the absurdity, but I think there’s more than a possibility the press will do portray Trump as a moderate anyway. Today’s New York Times article reporting Trump’s support for a 16-week ban portrays it as a moderate compromise position, coming from a politician deeply uncomfortable with abortion and eager to distance himself from hard-right abortion-banners. That’s consistent with the way the Times has (wrongly) treated Trump in the past, and it’s likely to continue — unless the Times faces significant pushback on this frame.
Trump brags he’s responsible for Roe v. Wade being overturned … and he is! As a candidate he made an unprecedented promise to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe, then he did, then they did, then he bragged about it. This is not a difficult record to assess! And if the news media, led by the New York Times, would simply make that clear instead of helping Trump obfuscate his record and his likely future actions by portraying him as a moderate on abortion, uncomfortable with the entire topic and eager to avoid it, the public would have a clearer understanding that the person most responsible for the current assault on abortion rights is, indeed, a continued threat to abortion rights.
He’s gonna ban it if he can.
If Joe Biden explained his support for a policy that took away the rights of tens of million Americans by saying “Know what I like about 16? It’s even. It’s four months,” the press would suggest he needs someone to cut his food for him.
The real question is not what he says he supports but rather what would he sign. If a GOP Congress passes a nationwide abortion ban from conception with no exceptions (which is what their party platform has called for since 2004), he undoubtedly would sign it.