Donald Trump's presidential campaign pushed back on a Friday report that said the Republican front-runner privately supports a 16-week national ban on abortions, with exceptions.
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump supports a 16-week ban, in part, because "it's even. It's four months."
Regardless, the Trump campaign called the report "fake news."
"President Trump appointed strong Constitutionalist federal judges and Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the decision back to the states, which others have tried to do for over 50 years," campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Trump has been critical of six-week abortion bans in Florida and Iowa, for example, calling them "a terrible mistake."
But he has not publicly stated his national policy. The Times reported that Trump wants to wait until he has secured the nomination before he announces a policy to avoid alienating social conservatives.
But he has been steadfast in supporting exceptions to any policy in cases of rape, incest, or a danger to the health of the mother. The Times also stated that in its report.
Whether Trump actually supports a 16-week ban or not, he earned the support from the president of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
"We strongly agree with President Trump on protecting babies from abortion violence at least by a point when they feel pain," Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. "President Trump wants to lead in finding consensus, and this is around where the nation is."
Another anti-abortion advocate, not so much.
"A limit on abortion at 4 months — 16 weeks — would allow for more than 9 in 10 abortions and will make no one happy; Not those who want to protect life in law, and not those whose entire agenda in 2024 is death by abortion at any cost," Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement to Politico.
Trump told NBC News in September that in a second term, "both sides are going to come together" to agree to a "number of weeks or months" and for "the first time in 52 years, you'll have an issue that we can put behind us."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93.5% of all abortions in 2021 came in the first trimester, 13 weeks or less.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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