Trump claims Roe gave mothers right 'to kill the baby after birth'

Former President Donald Trump claimed that Roe v. Wade gave mothers the right 'to kill the baby after birth' when clarifying his views on abortion during an interview Thursday. Trump was speaking to Sean Hannity (pictured left) during his visit to the US-Mexico border in Texas.

The former president's views on the issue have made headlines of late, as Trump called reports he was considering a federal 16-week abortion ban 'fake news.' Earlier this week, he spoke out against the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling against IVF treatments, which he reiterated Thursday, calling it a 'harsh decision.'

When asked by Hannity where he was on the issue, he compared himself to Ronald Reagan, saying he believed in exceptions despite being pro-life and claimed pro-abortion Democrats are radicals on the issue. 'I think it's a very important thing the exceptions,' he said. 'I also think that they are the radicals, because they will kill the baby in eight months, nine months. Under Roe v. Wade, they had the right to kill the baby after birth. I mean, literally, after birth in some cases.'

He claimed that former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had been in favor of such a policy. Northam had said in years past that if a fetus was nonviable and a woman were to give birth, the physicians and the mother would have 'a discussion' about its viability. 'We want that, we want people to help, we are on the side of women,' before adding, 'Same thing on the abortion issue. The abortion issue, now, I'm for the exceptions like Ronald Reagan was for the exceptions.'

Trump said that those views, which he communicated to Alabama GOP Senator Katie Britt , were why he put out his statement on IVF. He claimed that former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had been in favor of such a policy. Trump has repeatedly spoken somewhat critically about the GOP's handling of abortion post-Roe in the lead-up to the 2022 midterms but now blames the Democrats for how they pushed it to voters. 'The issue of abortion, I think it played a very big part,' he said. They demagogued that issue in 2022, in the midterm, and I think it hurt Republicans.'

The New York Times reported that Trump told his advisors that a federal 16-week abortion ban would be suitable, as long as it included exceptions for [sexual assault] and incest, or preserving the life of a mother. 'As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,' National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to reporters.

Republicans have suffered repeated political losses on the abortion issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since then, Trump remains reluctant to publicly state his opinion on a federal abortion ban, choosing instead to float the idea of a deal between pro-life and pro-choice activists. 'I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something and we'll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,' he said in an interview with NBC in September, when asked about the issue.

In the same interview, Trump criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for signing a six-week ban on abortion, as DeSantis was still running against the former president for the Republican nomination at the time. 'I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,' Trump said. Trump frequently trumpets the fact that thanks to his appointees to the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade was overturned, a long-time goal for pro-life activists, turning the issue of abortion back to the states.

Republican governors like DeSantis have used the opportunity to sign more restrictive abortion laws, while Democrats continue notching pro-choice victories across the country. During the Republican primaries, anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America urged Republican candidates to support a federal 15-week abortion ban, but Trump was hesitant to detail his position on abortion. The group responded to the New York Times report by endorsing the idea of a 16-week ban. 'We strongly agree with President Donald Trump on protecting babies from abortion violence at 16 weeks when they feel pain,' they wrote in a statement. 'A majority of Americans support this compassionate position.'

Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices to the bench during his first term as president, swinging the balance of justices against Roe v. Wade. Trump was also the first American president to personally and publicly address the national March for Life, taking the stage at the annual rally in 2020 against the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in Washington, DC. In January, he said he was 'proud' that he helped overturn the decision. '[T]hey were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I'm proud to have done it,' he said in an interview on Fox News in January. 'Nobody else was going to get that done but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.'

The Biden campaign issued a statement from the president condemning Trump's position. 'The choice is very simple. Kamala and I will restore Roe v. Wade and make it once again the law of the land. Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide,' Biden said. 'That is what is at stake this November.'

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