Donald Trump was on the verge of backing a 16-week federal abortion ban earlier this year when aides staged an intervention.
According to Time magazine's cover story on his selection as its 2024 Person of the Year, Trump's aides first raised concerns in mid-March that the abortion cutoff being pushed by some allies would be stricter than existing law in numerous states. It was seen as a potential political liability amid ongoing fallout over the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that includes three justices nominated by Trump in his first term.
Trump political director James Blair went to work assembling a slide deck -- eventually titled "How a national abortion ban will cost Trump the election" -- that argued a 16-week ban would hurt the Republican candidate in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, the magazine reported.
"After flipping through Blair's presentation" on a flight to a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in April, Trump dropped the idea, according to the report. "So we leave it to the states, right?" Trump was quoted as saying. He soon released a video articulating that position.
At the time, Trump's campaign denied that he was considering supporting the 16-week ban, calling it "fake news" and saying Trump planned to "negotiate a deal" on abortion if elected to the White House.
Here are other highlights from the story and the president-elect's 65-minute interview with the magazine:
Trump Offers Conflicting Answers on Future of Abortion Pills
Asked to clarify whether he was committed to preventing the FDA from stripping access to abortion pills, Trump replied, "It's always been my commitment."
But Trump has offered numerous conflicting stances on the issue, including to Time.
Earlier in the interview, he was asked whether he would promise that his FDA would not do anything to limit access to medication abortion or abortion pills. "We're going to take a look at all of that," he said, before calling the prospect "very unlikely."
"Look, I've stated it very clearly and I just stated it again very clearly. I think it would be highly unlikely. I can't imagine, but with, you know, we're looking at everything, but highly unlikely. I guess I could say probably as close to ruling it out as possible, but I don't want to. I don't want to do anything now," he said.
Trump Is Open to Changes for Childhood Vaccines
Trump, who has named anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead HHS, did not rule out the possibility of eliminating some childhood vaccinations even though they have been proven safe in extensive studies and real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades and are considered among the most effective public health measures in modern history.
Pressed on whether "getting rid of some vaccinations" -- neither Trump nor the interviewers specified which ones -- might be part of the plan to improve the health of the country, Trump responded: "It could if I think it's dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don't think it's going to be very controversial in the end."