Donald Trump is facing blowback both from anti-abortion activists and from within his own party after he implied he might support easing restrictions on the procedure in his home state of Florida.
The Republican presidential nominee was asked in an interview with NBC News on Thursday how he would vote this November on the state’s ballot measure to protect abortion.
Florida banned the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy after the US Supreme Court struck down the right to abortion nationwide – a law reproductive rights activists are now campaigning to end.
“I think the six week is too short,” Trump said, external. “It has to be more time. I told them that I want more weeks.”
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he said when pressed.
Trump has criticised Florida’s six-week abortion ban before.
Last September he said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a “terrible mistake” signing the ban into law.
Mr DeSantis was challenging the former president in the Republican primary at the time.
Thursday’s comments further open a rift between Trump and the anti-abortion movement, which plays a critical role in shaping conservative politics in the US.
“If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost,” conservative pundit Erick Erickson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye, in part, to national abortion issues. But for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far for too many.”
Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on X that Trump’s comments on reproductive rights, including on the six-week ban, “seem almost calculated to alienate prolife voters”.
“Pro-life Christian voters are going to have to think clearly, honestly, and soberly about our challenge in this election – starting at the top of the ticket,” he said.
The November ballot initiative would amend the Florida constitution to protect abortion access in the state until the point of foetal viability, which is about 23-25 weeks of pregnancy.
As it stands, the state has a near-total ban on abortion, as many women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks.
The proposed amendment states: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
Voters cannot choose a number of weeks into a pregnancy that abortion should be permitted. They can only choose “Yes” to support the amendment or “No” to reject it.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request to clarify his stance and whether he would vote yes or no to the measure.
Campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the New York Times that Trump “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida”.
“He simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” she said.
Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, tried to clarify the campaign’s position on CNN on Friday.
Mr Vance said the former president will “make his own announcement on how he’s going to vote” on the Florida measure that will be based on “his own judgement”.
Opinion polling indicates that a majority of Americans support abortion access.
A July poll from the University of North Florida suggested that 69% of likely voters supported the ballot measure, and 23% opposed it.
The political backlash after the Supreme Court brought an end to Roe v Wade – the landmark precedent that protected abortion access nationwide – in 2022 has presented Trump with a political conundrum he has yet to fully solve.
Trump rose to power with the help of the religious right, which broadly supports restrictions on the procedure.
In his first run for president, he pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn the constitutional right to abortion in the US.
He kept the promise by appointing three conservative jurists who ultimately voted to overturn Roe v Wade.
Abortion has now become a central issue in the 2024 presidential campaign – one that Democrats have used to rally voters.
His opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, has made reproductive rights central to her campaign.
Trump has taken the position that abortion policy should be left to individual states.
At the Republican National Convention in July, rank-and-file party members fell in line behind the former president, even though his position can seem at odds with their personal opposition to abortion.
Some abortion opponents still seek to restrict the procedure nationwide or believe Trump is alienating their base.
Further complicating Trump’s standing is a new proposal to make the government or insurance companies pay for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Some anti-abortion and religious groups object to IVF due to its use of embryos.
In February, the Alabama state supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered children, throwing IVF treatments and fertility care in the state into chaos.
The Republican Party, and Trump, have sought to distance themselves from that ruling, and Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature later passed IVF protections.
