Former President Donald Trump is continuing his bid for president in 2024, and now, his stance on abortion is making waves. According to a Feb. 16 report from The New York Times, Trump has privately expressed to his advisers that he supports the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban. This ban reportedly would consists of three exceptions, including instances of rape, incest, or saving the life of the mother. Her Campus reached out to Trump’s team for comment on the report but didn’t hear back by the time of publication. In relation to the idea of a 16-week ban, Trump apparently told a team member, “Know what I like about 16? It’s even. It’s four months.”
Trump’s stance on abortion has been blurred over the years. Back in 1999, way before his presidential run, Trump told Meet The Press he was “very pro-choice.” However, his views changed somewhere around 2016, where he leaned against abortion during his run for president. Then, when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Trump told Fox News, “God made the decision,” and that the ruling “brings everything back to the states, where it has always belonged.” The following year, though, Trump took all the credit for overturning Roe, singing a different tune than his seemingly middle-ground response in the immediate aftermath of the decision.
With the South Carolina Republican primaries approaching on Feb. 24, Donald Trump hopes to overtake his rival, Nikki Haley, in a state where restrictive laws on abortion are in effect. The state has effectively banned abortions after six weeks. Interestingly, in September 2023, Trump commented on a six-week abortion ban signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling it a “terrible mistake.”
Reproductive rights have been a very hot topic in American politics. From state-level bans to national bans, voters are on the lookout to see what stances candidates on both sides of the aisle have on the topic. With the 2024 presidential election, an influx of Gen Z voters will be hitting the polls. So, what is their take on Trump’s stance?
Her Campus took to its 2024 Election Focus Group of more than two dozen college students from across the country and across the political spectrum to find out. They had quite a bit to say about Trump reportedly supporting a 16-week national abortion ban. Here are their responses.
“I am someone who has different thoughts on abortion, but I do believe that it is a woman’s own personal choice. My opinion shouldn’t affect someone’s decision, and even though I would not choose abortion for my child unless there was a detrimental health risk, that doesn’t mean I should hold someone else from choosing abortion. It should be a woman’s own personal choice of going through abortion or not. For some women, choosing abortion is more than just ending the pregnancy because they don’t want to be a mom or don’t want to be responsible after conceiving. Some women don’t have the resources, support, or even guidance to take care of a child. Some people would say to put the child up for adoption in that case, but there are millions of kids in foster care systems already facing challenges only to have more kids being added to it. Donald Trump and the government that wants a strict 16-week abortion ban aren’t thinking about the circumstances of the women or kids in abortion situations. They’re only thinking about controlling women’s bodies and decisions in order to produce more kids in the population, which will make money for the government and the economy through consumerism and, of course, taxes.” – Vivian Gilbert
“I find it interesting that the Republican party changes their goals and contradicts themselves constantly. First, they want to decrease federal power and leave the decision of abortion up to the states, but now, they want to increase federal restrictions surrounding this issue? This ban will do nothing but endanger women who need abortion, and further demonize doctors who try to provide this care. This is becoming increasingly concerning considering the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision regarding IVF embryos. These embryos are now considered children under the law, and individuals could potentially be charged with murder for destroying them, which is a common practice in IVF. This practice is now effectively banned in the state of Alabama now. I’m worried for the future of women’s rights, especially leading up to the 2024 election.” – Paige Oltmans
“I have a mixed opinion. I personally am pro-life, but believe there are certain cases that it depends on the matter because of incest, rape, and saving the life of the mother. In my opinion, Trump’s idea of a 16-week abortion ban just shows me that he doesn’t want to tether himself to either side. He himself has flip-flopped from pro-abortion to anti-abortion. There’s no way to appease both sides, which I think is what he wants to do. I don’t think there’s a way to make both sides happy with or without the ban. I do agree on the point that the ban will not stop abortions — people will find other ways.” – Nathali Guevara-Reyes
“I feel that the battle with abortion will forever be an ongoing fight among people in our society. If the 16-week abortion ban does get put into action, this would mean that millions of women will lose access to securing a safe abortion. Even worse, it could also mean that many won’t have access to an abortion at all, which will lead to more conflicts.” – Makalah Wright
“I thought it was really interesting that Trump is attempting to wait until the Republican presidential primary to talk about his views on abortion in public. I think the fixation on ‘a number that’s going to make people happy’ fails to understand the crux of the issue: that abortion should be a decision between a woman and her doctor. When reproductive freedom issues arise in the news, I often think back to Pete Buttigieg’s appearance on Fox News in 2019. He said, ‘I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line. I trust women to draw the line when it’s their own health.’ I don’t agree with all of Buttigieg’s ideas, but I think he handled the question back then relatively well.” – Anonymous
“The vast, vast majority of abortions take place before 13 weeks. Not having been violated or not being in imminent physical danger does not mean you don’t deserve health care. Overturning Roe v. Wade is something the GOP worked towards for a long time, then treated it like a huge win for anti-choicers while trying to play it down to more pro-choice demographics saying abortion was still legal and now is a decision left to individual states. But this makes it clear it was never about giving individual states a choice but robbing individual people of one. It is the tightening of the noose that is the laws surrounding (predominantly) women’s bodies.” – Emma
The 2024 election will be one for the books. With Gen Z leading the pack as the new generation of voters, we are bound to see a lot of heavy discourse — especially within the burning topic of reproductive rights.