Trump's message to Republicans on abortion

Daniel Chaitin

October 08, 07:39 PM October 08, 08:00 PM

Former President Donald Trump says Republicans need to do a better job explaining their position on abortion ahead of the midterm elections.

In an interview that aired Saturday, Trump spoke with conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root, who talked about how Democrats are flooding the zone with campaign ads attacking Republicans on abortion access and surmised that inflation is a more important issue to voters.

Continuing to fashion himself as an anti-abortion advocate, Trump stressed "a certain standard" on abortion rights is needed, and "you have to talk about it." That standard, in Trump's view today and for at least a couple of years now, is that there have to be exemptions for cases of rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother, and he noted that it was the same stance taken by former President Ronald Reagan.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer, with three conservative judges appointed by Trump, the former president celebrated how states would be allowed to determine abortion access. Some Republicans went further, including Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, who pushed for a nationwide abortion ban.

Several states have moved to institute all sorts of restrictions on the procedure. On the federal level, Trump's ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a bill to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks, with the same rare exemptions favored by Trump. But warning signs to Republicans are popping up in the polls and include a decisive August vote in Kansas in favor of abortion rights.

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Trump nevertheless argued that Democrats are "the radical ones" when it comes to abortion and singled out former Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) as being "wacky" for comments in support of a late-term abortion bill in 2019 that drew backlash. "The problem is a lot of people aren't explaining it well, and I think having the exceptions is a very important thing," the former president said.