(LifeSiteNews) — Former President and presumptive Republican White House nominee Donald Trump came out against Arizona’s newly-enforceable near-total abortion ban on Wednesday, expressing confidence it will swiftly be “straightened out” and undermining defenders who denied that his new rhetorical focus on federalism reflected a deeper aversion to pro-life laws.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that a law codified in 1913 that long predates Roe v. Wade was legally enforceable now that Roe has been overturned and that Arizona’s far more recent 15-week abortion ban was not intended to invalidate it. The decision means that abortion is now illegal in the state for any reason except when allegedly necessary to save a mother’s life in the Grand Canyon State.
The next day, when asked if Arizona went “too far,” the 45th president answered, “yeah they did. That’ll be straightened out. As you know, it’s all about states’ rights. It’ll be straightened out. I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are gonna bring it back into reason, and I think that will be taken care of very quickly.”
READ: Arizona Supreme Court upholds pro-life law banning nearly all abortions
To a follow-up question, “What do you think about Florida?” where a proposed constitutional amendment creating a virtually unlimited “right” to abortion will be on the November ballot, Trump added, “Florida’s probably, maybe gonna change also. See, it’s all [inaudible] the will of the people, this is what I’ve been saying, it’s a perfect system.”
“So for 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade, to get it back to the states,” he continued. “We did that. It was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement, we did that, and now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want, it’s the will of the people. So Florida’s probably gonna change, Arizona’s going to definitely change, everybody wants that to happen, and you’re getting the will of the people, and pretty amazing, when you think.”
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who unsuccessfully ran against Trump for the Republican nomination, has predicted the abortion amendment will fail “once voters figure out how radical” it is, and one group of Arizonans who don’t want their pro-life law to change is the Arizona Freedom Caucus, which declared that “protecting the lives of Arizona’s most vulnerable children is not a political football to be kicked around for partisan gain” and lamented that some in the GOP “are choosing to reject the fundamental, core principle of protecting life.”
Trump’s opposition to the strong pro-life law follows his Monday announcement that “whatever” individual states “decide must be the law of the land” on abortion instead of pursuing further pro-life protections at the federal level, and cuts against defenders who interpreted his remarks as a mere tactical focus on advancing life at the state level until public opinion is more conducive to federal action. Trump has repeatedly stressed that any state abortion bans must include rape, incest, and “health” exceptions, and attacked Florida’s six-week abortion ban as “terrible” even though it allows rape and incest exceptions up to 15 weeks and all pro-life laws permit legitimate life-saving care for mothers in medical emergencies.
"A lot of people say, if you talk five or six weeks, a lot of women don’t know if they’re pregnant in five or six weeks,” Trump said in January, repeating a common pro-abortion talking point against pro-life heartbeat legislation.
Polls currently have Trump leading Democrat incumbent President Joe Biden, although voters also say that convictions in Trump’s various ongoing legal battles would make them less likely to support him. However, serious concern among Democrats over Biden’s age and mental health, and deep dissatisfaction with his job performance, give the current president comparable electoral challenges.
Third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could be a wild card, as he has qualities that appeal to each major candidate’s base. At the moment, the aforementioned polls show Trump’s lead persisting even with Kennedy factored in, but given how close many are predicting the election to be, concern persists that even small defections could impact the outcome. Kennedy recently confirmed that, like Biden, he would also sign legislation codifying a nationwide “right” to abortion.
It remains to be seen how Trump’s latest comments will affect voter turnout from pro-lifers, long considered one of the GOP’s most important constituencies.
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