Newsweek, April 2024
More Americans believe abortion restrictions should be decided by the states rather than the federal government, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek. The results suggest more Americans are coming to share former President Donald Trump’s view on the issue. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced last week that he believes abortion limits should be left to the states, declining to endorse a national ban after months of speculation and warning that extreme stances on the issue could lead to Republican losses in November’s election.
Abortion has been a winning issue for Democrats, and President Joe Biden and his allies are campaigning on restoring abortion rights and seeking to draw a contrast with Trump. In a statement after Trump’s announcement, Biden said the former president is responsible for “creating the cruelty and the chaos that has enveloped America” since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and said that Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he wins back the White House.
Since the high court’s decision ended the nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have new abortion restrictions in effect, including 14 that ban it at every stage of pregnancy. And last week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled to uphold the state’s 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions, meaning Arizona now has the strictest abortion law of the top battleground states.
