Donald Trump says he will vote against Florida's abortion rights ballot amendment

WASHINGTON — Facing a backlash from anti-abortion advocates, Former President Donald Trump said Friday he will vote against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would overturn the state's six-week abortion ban.

His decision is a turnaround from just 24 hours earlier, when he appeared open to the amendment.

Trump, the Republican nominee, said he will vote no on Florida Amendment 4 in an interview with Fox News despite also maintaining that he believes the state's six-week ban is too strict.

"I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks," Trump said. "I disagreed with that right from the early primaries. When I heard about it, I disagreed with it. At the same time, the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month."

Trump added: "All of that stuff is unacceptable, so I'll be voting no for that reason."

More: Trump says he wants IVF treatment fully covered, rejects Florida 6-week abortion ban

Florida law bans abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is roughly around six weeks of pregnancy. It was pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and supported by Republican leaders across the state, where Trump calls home and casts his ballot.

Abortion rights advocates are seeking to overturn it with a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. The measure reads: "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."

The amendment does not have any language about allowing abortions up to the ninth month of a pregnancy.

Trump's position on the abortion amendment, which he's withheld providing for months, came after he seemed to suggest Thursday that he would be voting for it.

More: Why evangelicals are upset at Trump, Vance for leaving abortion to states

Trump told NBC News on Thursday, "I think the six-week is too short; it has to be more time." And when pressed how he would vote on the amendment, he said: "I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks."

His comments were criticized by Christian conservatives and other anti-abortion advocates. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said Thursday that she spoke to Trump that evening and that he had "not committed to how he will vote" on the amendment.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, slammed Trump's opposition to the abortion amendment. "Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant," Harris said in a statement.

Trump regularly touts appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade and its constitutional right to an abortion. Yet he has struggled to navigate post-Roe abortion politics. The Harris campaign has seized on Trump's pivotal role in overturning Roe and worked to make the restoration of abortion protections a top issue in the 2024 election.

"Trump proudly brags about the role that he played in overturning Roe v. Wade and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion," Harris said. "So, of course he thinks it’s a ‘beautiful thing’ that women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, face life-threatening situations, and are forced to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need."

Harris added that "he is not done," warning that "Trump and his allies would limit access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress." Trump has not endorsed a national abortion ban, instead saying decisions on the issue should be left up to states.

"I trust women to make their own health care decisions and believe the government should never come between a woman and her doctor," Harris said, reiterating her support for legislation in Congress to restore abortion protections.

Ahead of announcing his opposition to Florida's abortion amendment, Trump this week said he supports mandating that insurance companies cover the costs of in vitro fertilization. The issue entered the national spotlight after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this year that the embryos created during IVF are legally protected like children after the overturning of Roe.

More: 'We want more babies': Trump's IVF plan draws flak from right and left

The Harris campaign fired back at Trump's proposal, arguing it shouldn't be taken seriously because Senate Republicans in June voted to block legislation that sought to guarantee access to in vitro fertilization nationwide and require employer-sponsored insurance to cover IVF.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, was among the Republicans who voted to block the bill from advancing.

“American women are not stupid. And we know the only guaranteed protection for IVF is a new national law, which Kamala Harris supports and Donald Trump opposes,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a Harris surrogate said in a call with reporters Friday.

Warren called Trump’s proposal “smoke and mirrors,” noting it was Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court justices that led to the overturning of a constitutional right to an abortion and enabled states to adopt tough new abortion restrictions.

“It was Donald Trump who opened the door for any extremist judge or extremist state legislature to ban IVF,” Warren said.

The Harris campaign is launching a 50-stop “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour on Tuesday that will seek to “hold Trump directly accountable” for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and its repercussions. The tour begins in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump resides.

Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump says he will vote against Florida's abortion rights ballot amendment