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NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he will vote no on a Florida ballot measure that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban, a day after he seemed to indicate he would vote in favor of the measure.
Trump has said he thinks Florida’s ban is a mistake and said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, “I think six weeks, you need more time." But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical,” and he repeated false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions and said that he opposed allowing abortions up until nine months.
“So I’ll be voting no for that reason,” said Trump, who is registered to vote at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The Florida ballot measure would legalize abortion until fetal viability, a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. It’s generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks, which is about six months.
Trump drew backlash from abortion opponents who support him when he seemed to signal in another interview on Thursday that he would vote in favor of the ballot measure and repeal the six week ban when he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Amid the blowback his campaign quickly issued a statement saying that Trump had not actually said how he would vote but “simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”
Trump has held multiple conflicting positions on abortion over the years. After briefly considering backing a potential 15-week ban on the procedure nationwide, he announced in April that regulating abortion should be left to the states.
In the months since, he has repeatedly taken credit for his role in overturning Roe and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own restrictions.
“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,” Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, said in a statement responding to Trump's Friday comments.