Donald Trump, who has taken credit for abolishing women’s constitutional right to abortion with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, vowed in a lengthy Truth Social post on Friday night to “PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE”.
The Republican presidential candidate appears to be trying to strike a more moderate position on women’s rights as Vice President Kamala Harris keeps hammering him on the issue of reproductive freedom.
“WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO!,” he wrote on Truth Social, before saying that he will “FIX ALL OF THAT, AND FAST.”
“WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE!” he added.
He went on speak directly to female voters, saying “YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.”
Trump said he would allow “POWERFUL EXEMPTIONS, LIKE THOSE THAT RONALD REAGAN INSISTED ON—RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.”
“I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE, AND SECURE. THEIR LIVES WILL BE HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, AND GREAT AGAIN!” he concluded.
However, at the first presidential debate against Harris, Trump declined to say whether he would veto a national ban.
On Friday, in her first speech dedicated exclusively to abortion rights since becoming the presidential nominee, Harris blamed Trump for abortion bans across the country and the deaths of two Georgia mothers who died after being unable to access legal abortions and adequate medical care in the state.
“Two women—and those are only the stories we know—here in the state of Georgia died, died, because of a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said.
The deaths of the Georgia mothers, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, were first reported earlier this week by ProPublica and occurred after Georgia enacted a six-week abortion ban.
Thurman took abortion pills to end a pregnancy in 2022 but her body failed to expel all of the fetal tissue and she developed sepsis and died during an emergency surgery.
Miller’s family said she didn’t visit a doctor “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions” and so she took abortion pills, which produced a similar situation to Thurman where she developed sepsis and died.
