Trump Says ‘Nobody Else’ Could Have ‘Terminated Roe V. Wade’ But Him

Former President Donald Trump, answering a question about his stance on abortion at a Fox News town hall last week, boasted about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old Supreme Court ruling that protected women’s rights to choose an abortion.

His answer began with a braggadocios claim that “nobody else was gonna get that done but me.” He followed that with an anecdote about a backstage crew member stopping him before his appearance to say, “Thank you for saving two million lives.”

The former president then promptly backpedaled on his hard-line pro-life stance, citing examples such as rape and incest in which abortion may be acceptable. He claimed this stance aligns him with conservative figurehead Ronald Reagan.

But the quick concession made it apparent he is aware of the unpopularity of a total national abortion ban, repeating throughout the town hall, “You have to win elections.”

He offered up one of his current political foes, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), as an example of what happens when taking the most conservative position on the issue, tying his declining poll numbers to signing a six-week ban in Florida. (DeSantis has committed to a national
abortion ban after 15 weeks).

He continued to pursue the point by launching the familiar and false talking point that Democrats favor “killing the baby after birth.”

Roe was overturned on June 4, 2022, when the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization that individual states could set their standards for protecting or banning abortion without any federal protection to abortion access.