Trump said abortion laws should be left to the states: 'It's all about will of the people'

• Former President Donald Trump on Monday announced his views on abortion legislation.
• He came out against a federal law or ban, saying legislation should be left to the states to enact.

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he thought abortion bans should be left to the individual states.

Trump made the announcement on his social-media platform, Truth Social, with seven months to go until the 2024 presidential election.

"The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land," Trump said. "In this case, the law of the state."

He said many states would have varying limitations without a federal standard.

"Do what's right for our country and vote — so important to vote," he said. "At the end of the day, it's all about will of the people."

The former president's declaration came a little less than two years after the Supreme Court — with three Trump appointments — overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Trump has taken full credit for the progress the anti-abortion movement has made.

"Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to," he wrote on Truth Social in 2023. "Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!""

In his video on Monday, Trump doubled down on his support for keeping in vitro fertilization legal across the country. The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that medical facilities could be sued over destroying frozen embryos.

Trump's shifting opinion

Over the past 30 years, Trump has repeatedly changed his public opinion on abortion.

In 1999, appearing on NBC News' "Meet the Press," he said he was "very pro-choice," though he added that he hated "the concept of abortion."

In 2011, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he said he was "pro-life."

He doubled down on his position in 2016 at a town hall on the campaign trail, calling for " some form of punishment" for women who have abortions.

Hours later, he backtracked and said that doctors involved in abortions should be prosecuted, not the woman getting the procedure.

The next day, Trump tried again to clarify his stance, saying: "The laws are set now on abortion, and that's the way they're going to remain until they're changed."