Former President Donald Trump said Friday he will vote against a Florida ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution — a day after he angered some of his evangelical supporters with remarks about restrictions on the procedure.
Trump said in a TV interview that he still disagrees with the six-week ban imposed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the state but that he would vote against Amendment 4 because he opposed what he calls “radical” access to the procedure favored by Democrats.
“All of that stuff is unacceptable, so I will be voting no for that reason,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
His remarks, which included an inaccurate description of abortion laws that he frequently repeats, appeared to be an effort at damage control a day after he angered supporters by seeming to moderate his views on abortion as he faces what polls show is an increasingly tight race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
The vice president pounced on his remarks. "Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant."
Some evangelicals were critical of remarks Trump made Thursday in another TV interview in which he criticized the six-week ban and seemed to indicate that, as a Florida resident, he would vote “yes” on Amendment 4 in the November election.
“I’m going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he told NBC. His campaign later clarified that he hadn't yet said how he would vote on the Florida measure.
Amendment 4 would guarantee a right to abortion under the state constitution until the fetus is viable or if necessary to protect the health of the mother. It was put on the ballot in response to the six-week ban pushed by DeSantis and other Republicans after the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority because of Trump’s appointees, overturned Roe v. Wade.
In the Fox interview, Trump repeated that he thinks the Florida law is too restrictive. “I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” he said.
Anti-abortion groups that bristled at Trump’s comments about Florida’s six-week ban welcomed his latest remarks. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, said in a statement to POLITICO that she was “pleased to see” he “listened to the pro-life generation and a large base of conservative voters.”
Amendment 4 campaign spokesperson Natasha Sutherland suggested in a statement that Trump's position wouldn't matter much at the ballot box.
“Regardless of what politicians say or do each day, when it comes to Amendment 4, the truth today is the same as the truth yesterday,” Sutherland said. “Floridians have a choice between the state's current extreme abortion ban and voting ‘Yes’ on 4 to overturn that ban and get politicians out of our exam rooms.”
Arek Sarkissian contributed to this report.
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