Pro-life ad slams Trump suggesting Florida’s 6 week abortion ban could be ‘too harsh’
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (FLV) – A new ad released by the super PAC Never Back Down slammed former President Donald Trump for recent comments surrounding abortion bans.
The group supports Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign, but is not officially affiliated with him.
Specifically, Trump discussed a recently signed six-week abortion ban from DeSantis, saying some might view it as “too harsh” in the pro-life community.
When asked about DeSantis signing the six-week ban, Trump said, “He has to do what he has to do.”
“If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing,” Trump said. “But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”
The ad will attack Trump while the former president visits Iowa. It capitalizes on the Iowa Legislature’s passing of a bill banning abortion after a heartbeat is protected.
“The former president alienates himself from the pro life community by saying Ron DeSantis, who signed a heartbeat bill in the state of Florida, that that was too harsh,” a speaker in the ad is heard saying.
“The pro life community expects better than that,” it concluded.
At a CNN town hall, Trump was also asked about abortion where he was similarly vague.
“Would you sign a federal abortion ban into law?” Trump was asked.
“What I will do is negotiate so that people are happy,” he replied, pivoting to appointing Supreme Court justices ultimately overturning Roe v. Wade.
Earlier in May before announcing his official 2024 candidacy, DeSantis hit Trump on the “too harsh” comments.
“Protecting an unborn child when there’s the detectable heartbeat is something that almost, probably, 99% of pro lifers support,” DeSantis said.
“It’s something that other states like Iowa under Governor Kim Reynolds have enacted,” he said.
“As a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about, ‘would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did?’” he continued. “That had all the exceptions that people talk about the legislature put it in.”
“I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
#BREAKING: DeSantis hits Trump on suggesting the six-week abortion ban may be "too harsh"
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) May 16, 2023
"As a Florida resident, he didn't give an answer about 'would you sign the heartbeat bill that Florida did?' […] He won't answer whether he would sign it or not." pic.twitter.com/2yYoYZSt7F
While Trump was recently vague on abortion, his administration was host to some of the most pro-life policies and rhetoric in modern history.
Trump appointed three conservative-leaning justices to the U.S. Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
A few years later, in a 6-3 opinion, Roe v. Wade, which outlined the right to an abortion up to a certain point of pregnancy nationwide, was overturned in the Dobbs decision, where all of Trump’s appointees sided in favor of leaving abortion laws up to the states.
In 2020, Trump was also the first U.S. president to attend and speak at the March for Life, a yearly anti-abortion and pro-life march in Washington, D.C.
“It is my profound honor to be the first President in history to attend the March for Life,” Trump said in 2020. “We’re here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.”
