NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Friday he will vote against a Florida ballot initiative that would repeal the state’s ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, a day after he appeared to indicate he would vote in favor of it.
Trump has said he thinks Florida’s ban is a mistake, saying in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, “I think at six weeks you need more time.” But he later said, “At the same time, Democrats are radical,” and repeated false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions and said he opposed allowing abortions up to nine months.
“So I’m voting no for that reason,” said Trump, who is registered to vote at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Florida’s ballot initiative would legalize abortion up to fetal viability, a term used by doctors to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus could survive outside the womb. This is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks, which is about six months.
Trump drew criticism from abortion opponents who support him when he appeared to signal in another interview Thursday that he would vote for the ballot initiative and repeal the ban on abortion at six weeks, saying, “I’m going to vote that we need more than six weeks.”
Amid the uproar, his campaign quickly issued a statement saying Trump had not actually said how he would vote, but “simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”
Trump has held multiple contradictory positions on abortion over the years. After briefly considering backing a possible national ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of gestation, he announced in April that abortion regulation should be left to the states.
In the months since, he has repeatedly taken credit for his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, saying it has been “beautiful to watch” states put their own restrictions in place.
“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion crystal clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme that it applies before many women even know they are pregnant,” Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, said in a statement responding to Trump’s comments on Friday.
