CLAIM: President Joe Biden is claiming that voting for former President Donald Trump equals “a vote for a national abortion ban.”
VERDICT: False.
Trump stated in April that the issue of abortion is about “the will of the people” and is an issue that should be left for the states to decide. In April, the former president posted a video to Truth Social, announcing his stance on abortion.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide, must be the law of the land,” Trump said in the video.
Trump added in the video that states would pass different forms of legislation regarding the “number of weeks” until abortion was prohibited:
Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases, your religion or your faith.
Despite this, Biden wrote in a post on X on Monday night that “a vote for Trump is a vote for a national abortion ban.”
A vote for Trump is a vote for a national abortion ban.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 24, 2024
Other Democrat officials, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have claimed that if Trump is reelected in November, there will be a national ban on abortion. In May, Clinton claimed that “all” women would “live in a state where abortion” was either restricted or banned.
During an interview with former White House press secretary MSNBC host Jen Psaki, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said Trump is “a liar” and he had no doubt the former president would sign a national abortion ban into effect.
The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, returning the issue of abortion to state lawmakers and the voters.
Since then, states such as Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina have enacted six-week abortion bans, while nine states in the southern region have passed almost near-total abortion bans.
Nine states, and Washington, DC, currently do not have restrictions on abortion.
In May, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) repealed an 1864 law that had banned almost all abortions in the state.