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Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that Florida’s law banning most abortions after six weeks is “too short,” but was cagy about whether that means he will vote for Amendment 4 this fall, which would enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the state’s Constitution.
“I think the six weeks is too short; it has to be more time, and I’ve told them I want more weeks,” Trump told NBC News’ Dasha Burns.
That’s not the first time that the former president has spoken critically about Florida’s abortion law, voted in by the state’s Republican-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. Because of a lawsuit, the six-week ban did not go into effect until May 1 of this year.
Burns then asked Trump, a Florida resident, if that meant he would support the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would restore the right to an abortion up until viability (considered to be around 24 weeks).
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he replied, not directly answering the question.
He went on to praise himself for appointing the three U.S. Supreme Court Justices during his first term as president who all voted to strike down the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. “I got it down. They wanted it to go back to the states,” he added.
In addition to Florida, nine states have abortion rights measures on their ballots in November. In the seven states that have voted on abortion since the 2022 Dobbs decision, all have restored abortion rights.
Trump has tried to have it both ways. He has boasted that he is the man most responsible for overturning Roe by appointing the conservative justices (Brett Kavanaugh, Neal Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett) who voted to do that. But he has disappointed anti-abortion activists by saying earlier this year that he wants the issue to be decided by the individual states, and not by the federal government.
Despite that claim, Democrats such as Kamala Harris have maintained that he will ban abortion nationally if re-elected in the fall.
‘Torn apart’
“Our country’s been torn apart by Roe v. Wade for years, years,” Trump told Burns. “And if you go back 10 years, 15 years, all they wanted to do was, they wanted it back in the states, they didn’t want it to be in the federal government,” he added — though “they” were people who oppose abortion rights, not those who support them.
If in fact Trump is opposing Amendment 4, that would be in direct conflict with the positions of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the entire Republican establishment in the state, who are spending considerable resources to try to defeat the amendment, which requires 60% of the vote to become law.
Some recent polls have shown the measure coming in below that 60%. A Florida Atlantic University survey of more than 1,000 likely voters in Florida released earlier this month showed the measure getting 56% support, with 29% opposing and 23% saying that they’re not sure how they’ll vote. Other surveys have shown enough support for the measure to pass.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and X.
