Former President Donald Trump stopped short of endorsing a federal abortion ban, instead arguing that the issue should be left up to the states.
"My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a video shared to Truth Social on Monday morning. . "The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state."
In the Truth Social video, Trump emphasized the importance of a November victory, telling voters to follow their hearts before adding, "but we must win. We have to win."
"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," he said.
The former president also advanced several false claims about Democratic policy surrounding abortion. He said that "radical" Democrats wanted abortion to be legal "up to and even beyond the ninth month" and "execution after birth." Trump also said that he was "strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother."
The former president also broke ranks with some of the most conservative Republicans who have advocated for bans on in vitro fertilization. He praised the Alabama legislature for acting "very quickly" to undo the legal consequences of LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine - a state Supreme Court decision that held that frozen embryos are living beings.
"I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby," Trump said. "What could be more beautiful or better than that?"
In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion has increasingly proved to be a losing issue for Republicans. Many attributed the GOP's underperformance in the midterms to anger about the abortion bans sweeping the country.
Referenda on abortion access have overwhelmingly resulted in victories for reproductive freedom advocates. Even in Republican-dominated states, like Kentucky, Kansas and Montana, putting abortion on the ballot has resulted in pro-choice victories.
"Abortion is to Republicans what immigration is to Democrats," former Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo told Politico, last week. "If they're talking about it, they're losing."
