‘Today is the day he lost’: Trouble for Donald Trump over abortion remarks

Donald Trump has sought to contain the blast radius of a fierce backlash over his remarks on abortion.

Republican White House nominee Donald Trump has sought to contain the blast radius of a fierce backlash over his remarks publicly backing away from right-wing positions on reproductive rights.

The ex-president has been under fire from conservatives over an announcement that in a second term he would ensure free in vitro fertilisation – an expensive fertility procedure that many in the anti-abortion movement want to see curbed.

The rift widened as he hit out at his home state Florida’s six-week abortion ban, calling it too restrictive and suggesting he planned to vote for an upcoming ballot measure that would make the procedure legal until a foetus becomes viable.

Mr Trump, 78, walked back the comment ahead of a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Friday, telling Fox News that “I will be voting no.”

But conservatives had already begun criticising Mr Trump’s ever-shifting positions on abortion, with a new Republican policy platform dropping calls for a national ban and the tycoon’s recent claim that his government would be “great” for reproductive rights.

Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

The pushback from anti-abortion groups on his latest remarks was swift, with activists warning that he risks alienating his base.

“If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost,” conservative pundit Erick Erickson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye, in part, to national abortion issues. But for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far for too many.”

Evangelical theologian Albert Mohler said Mr Trump’s positions appeared “almost calculated to alienate pro-life voters”.

Mr Trump’s rally, in Johnstown, was notable for the absence of any remarks on reproductive rights, despite Thursday’s big IVF announcement.

Mr Donald Trump reacts at his rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on August 30. Picture: Roberto Schmidt / AFP

The campaign of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was happy to weigh in on the issue, smelling blood in the water.

“The majority of Americans support abortion access, they support IVF, they support contraception,” Mini Timmaraju, of the Reproductive Freedom for All lobby group, told reporters in a campaign call.

“(Mr Trump) has finally figured it out, and he’ll do anything to distract from his abysmal, horrifying record on this issue.”

‘He is pro-life’

Mr Trump has been all over the map on abortion in the last 15 years, initially describing himself as “pro-choice” before calling for “some form of punishment” for women seeking the procedure.

He boasts about appointing Supreme Court justices who ended federal protections for abortion access in 2022 but has more recently begun to worry that Republicans are out of step with the majority of voters on reproductive rights.

His IVF pledge appeared calculated to appeal to moderates but will upset conservatives who for years opposed Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act because they were against the redistributive economics of taxpayer-funded health insurance.

Almost every Senate Republican voted against assuring IVF access in a vote in June in any case, and more than half of the House Republican lawmakers have sponsored legislation that threatens its legality.

Abortion rights activists demonstrate in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24. Picture: Jim Watson / AFP

Republicans are divided on fertility treatments such as IVF, with many hailing them as a boost to American families.

Others, with strong beliefs that life begins at conception, oppose IVF because the procedure can produce multiple embryos, not all of which get used.

Abortion rights activists worry that the Supreme Court decision threatens IVF and were given cause by a February ruling in Alabama that frozen embryos could be considered people, causing several clinics to briefly pause treatments.

Yet if the abortion and IVF rows threatened to alienate Mr Trump’s most loyal supporters, rally-goers in Johnstown weren’t showing it.

“It’s not enough to make me not vote for him, no way, because he is pro-life,” said Lisa Davis, a 54-year-old retired office manager from the nearby town of Somerset.

“I know he wants to give some exceptions — and I think there should be.”

“Why should I pay with my tax dollars for a baby getting killed?” added retired nurse Rosemary Drzal, 69.

Mr Trump was due to head to the capital Washington later on Friday to speak to the powerful conservative group Moms for Liberty.