Donald Trump said he would vote against an amendment in his home state of Florida that would ensure abortion rights. Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Friday (August 30, 2024) that he would vote against an amendment in his home state of Florida that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and eliminate the current six-week abortion ban.
Mr Trump made this remark Fox NewsA day earlier he had caused confusion by suggesting in an interview that nbc news He said he would vote in favour of the amendment.
The amendment is strongly opposed by anti-abortion groups, who have backed her campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5, 2024 election.
“I think six weeks, you need more than six weeks,” Mr Trump said, adding that he also believes the proposed amendment is too permissive.
“So I will be voting ‘no’ for that reason,” Mr Trump said, also indicating that the matter should be decided by individual states.
Ms Harris noted that the former president bragged about his role in eliminating constitutional protections for abortion, saying she would vote to keep a ban “so draconian that many women don’t even know they’re pregnant.”
“When I am president and Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, I will proudly sign it. The choice in this election is clear,” she said in a statement.
Abortion has become a major issue ahead of the election, as contributions in favor of abortion rights have increased over the past two years since the Supreme Court rejected the Roe v. Wade case.
IVF Fertility Treatments
IVF fertility treatments have also been put in the spotlight after an Alabama court ruled earlier this year that frozen embryos are human beings. The state’s governor later signed a law aimed at protecting the treatment.
Mr Trump, who has been described by Democrats as a threat to women’s rights, said on Thursday (August 29, 2024) that, if elected, he would make the government or insurance companies pay for IVF fertility treatments.
However, Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Friday (August 30, 2024) dismissed that proposal as unbelievable.
Mr. Walz told guests at a campaign fundraiser in the Washington suburb of Bethesda that he and his wife, Gwen, had considered changing the way they talked about the issue in light of Mr. Trump’s comments but later changed their minds.
“Look, women don’t trust them. They don’t trust women, so why would women trust them? Nobody is believing this,” Mr. Walz told about 150 campaign contributors.
Gwen Walz did not mention Mr. Trump’s latest comments in introducing her husband, but said the overall issue of fertility treatments was very personal to their family, as they had used them to conceive their two children, Hope and Gus.
“If Trump had his way, I would never have been able to be a mother,” Gwen Walz said. “This was a decision he was trying to make for me and other women, and if Vance had his way, I would have been held to a second standard.”
The comment, directed at Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, appeared to reference his 2021 remarks about Democrats without biological children, calling them “childless cat ladies.”
Opinion polls show that Mr Trump has lost ground among female voters since Ms Harris became the Democratic nominee in the November 5 election. Ms Harris holds a 49% to 36% lead over Mr Trump among female voters, or by 13% points. Reuters/Ipsos In the survey published on Thursday (August 29, 2024), his lead was 9 points, while in the surveys conducted in July, he had got a lead of 9 points.