A change of position on medical abortion?

BASHINGTON — Former President Trump doesn’t want to talk much about abortion in his 2024 presidential campaign. But as his confused messaging on mifepristone showed Thursday, Democrats are willing to take any opportunity he gives them to keep the issue of reproductive rights in the national spotlight.

A reporter asked the Republican presidential candidate during a lengthy press conference at Mar-a-Lago whether he would instruct the Food and Drug Administration to “revoke” access to the abortion pill mifepristone if he were elected to a second term. Although Trump’s response was difficult to interpret, he did not reject the idea.

“You could do things that are complementary. Absolutely. Those things are pretty open and human,” he said. “But you have to be able to vote, and I just want to give everyone a vote.”

Trump had previously said during the June 27 debate that he supported the Supreme Court’s decision to allow telemedicine prescriptions of mifepristone to go unchallenged and that he would not seek a national ban on abortion. Given his more vague stance Thursday, Democrats and reproductive rights advocates argued that a second Trump administration could restrict abortion access in myriad ways short of a national ban that many Republicans already consider politically unfeasible.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign quickly posted clips of Trump’s recent mifepristone response on social media platforms, recalling the Project 2025 narrative – which calls for a nationwide ban on abortion – that Trump has desperately tried to distance himself from in recent weeks.

“Today, Donald Trump made clear what his allies in Project 2025 have been saying for months: If elected, he will use his power and every tool of the federal government to shut down access to medication abortion and effectively ban abortion in all 50 states across the country,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in a statement.

“We talk a lot about abortion bans, and we can talk about it because I’m sure he would sign it if it were possible,” said Dara Kass, an emergency physician and professor at Columbia University Medical Center. “But before that’s possible, he’s going to do a lot.”

Other Democrats also quickly responded with sharp criticism of Trump’s response.

“Donald Trump is incapable of forming complete sentences, but this should be a simple answer. I support access to medication abortion,” wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) on X.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 for abortions up to seven weeks of pregnancy and later extended the approval to 10 weeks. During the coronavirus pandemic, the agency allowed the pill to be prescribed via telemedicine. Conservative Christian groups challenged the FDA’s approval and loosening of restrictions in a case that the Supreme Court sent back to lower courts this spring.

According to the latest data from the Society of Family Planning, telemedicine abortions increased in the wake of Roe’s overturn in 2022. Telemedicine prescriptions accounted for one-fifth of abortions in the first quarter of 2024, 5% more than before the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Trump team did not respond to requests for comment on its statement or stance on access to mifepristone.

The former president also seemed eager to downplay the potential impact of abortion rights on the election during his press conference, even as Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, campaigned to incite voters against his changing and sometimes ambiguous stance.

Trump said Thursday that the issue of abortion rights has become “much less important” because states now determine policy. “Abortion has become a much smaller issue. I think it will actually be a very small issue,” he said at Mar-a-Lago.

Abortion access is on the ballot for November’s vote in at least five states, and advocates plan to win votes in six more states as well. Trump even acknowledged that a ballot initiative in Florida, his home state since 2021, is “going to be a little more liberal than people thought.” The ballot would protect abortions up until fetal viability, lifting a six-week ban.

Trump continues to insist that repealing Roe is generally popular, even though polls suggest most Americans oppose the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022.

However, his softened stance in recent months – he insisted on leaving abortion policy to the states and refraining from a nationwide ban – has also infuriated conservative anti-abortion activists.

Frustration flared up again last month when Trump’s vice presidential running mate JD Vance, himself a staunch anti-abortionist, told NBC he also supported the Supreme Court’s decision to leave access to mifepristone unchanged. Some accused Trump and Vance of abandoning a longstanding Republican party principle, while others acknowledged it would be a losing issue in the 2024 election.

“I am sure Senator Vance was responding to a question about a complete ban, which he believes is politically impossible at this time,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to STAT at the time. “I am equally sure he believes that doctors should be involved in the administration of these dangerous drugs and that states should have the right to regulate them.”