Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected US president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk, according to Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
“I can absolutely commit that,” Mr Vance said when asked on NBC’s Meet the Press whether he could commit to Mr Trump not imposing such a ban.
“Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a non-stop federal conflict over this issue.”
The Ohio senator also insisted that Mr Trump, the former president who is the Republican nominee this year, would veto such legislation if it were passed by Congress.
“I mean, if you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” he said in an interview that aired on Sunday.
Mr Vance’s comments come after Democrats spent night after night of their national convention in Chicago last week assailing Mr Trump for his role in appointing the Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and paving the way for bans and restrictions across Republican-led states.
Efforts to try to neutralise an issue that Democrats hope will galvanise voters this autumn also risk alienating parts of Mr Trump’s base opposed to abortion rights.
While Mr Trump has repeatedly boasted about his role in overturning Roe, he has, in recent days, pushed back on Democrats’ warnings that he will go even further to restrict access if he wins a second term.
“My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” he wrote on Friday on his Truth Social platform, appropriating language used by abortion rights activists and the left.
His comments drew a wave of criticism from anti-abortion advocates, including the editor of the conservative National Review, which published an article titled “Trump’s Abandonment of Pro-Lifers Is Complete”.
Democrats have responded to Mr Trump’s claims with deep scepticism.
“American women are not stupid and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion for women all across this country,” said Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren told NBC.
Mr Trump has often struggled to talk about abortion.
Before he entered politics, he had described himself as “very pro-choice”.
Earlier this year, he grappled with his stance on a federal abortion ban, suggesting at one point that he would support one at around 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.
He then settled on his current position: That restrictions should be left to individual states.
Mr Trump has not said how he plans to vote on an upcoming ballot measure on Florida’s six-week ban.
