Federal Abortion Ban: Presidential Veto?

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, said Saturday that Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passed a bill.

A federal ban on abortion is an issue that has been a topic of discussion in the United States.

When asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” about Republican lawmakers like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham who would like to see Trump advocate for the issue.

And thus, pass an abortion ban, Vance told moderator Kristen Welker that Trump has “explicitly” said he would veto a federal abortion ban.

“I mean, if you don’t support it, as president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” Vance argued.

Trump’s latest campaign position comes as the former president has changed his position on abortion policy over the years.

Read more: Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention

Federal Abortion Ban

In April, Trump was asked on a tarmac in Atlanta if he would sign a national ban on abortion if it passed Congress and simply replied “no.”

But the former president did not clarify at the time what he considered a “ban.”

In 2018, when he was president, Trump asked the Senate to pass a 20-week limit on abortions that had already passed the House.

Last year, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.

“After 50 years of failures, with no one even coming close, I was able to strike down Roe v. Wade, to the great ‘shock’ of everyone,” Trump said in a social media post in May 2023.

And as recently as March, Trump flirted with the idea of a 15-week federal abortion ban, telling a local radio host that “the number of weeks now … people agree on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and something will come out that’s very reasonable.”

“But people actually agree, even the hardliners, it seems to be 15 weeks, it seems to be a number that people agree on,” Trump added in that interview.