Trump’s abortion position? Leave it up to the states

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, former President Donald Trump took credit for leaving decisions about abortion bans up to individual states, while pledging to maintain that choice for states if he’s re-elected. Can we expect the lack of federal guidance on individual rights to continue? And will Republican supporters hold any ill will for his lack of commitment to a classic conservative value?

President Biden openly criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s deadly campaign in Gaza following last week’s attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers. In an interview with Univision, Biden called for a temporary ceasefire and for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. It’s a significant change of attitude publicly for the president. It could appease some more moderate observers who take issue with Israel’s military strategy. But many on the left believe nothing has actually changed regarding U.S. policy with Israel.

President Biden vowed to federally fund the rebuild of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge following a tragic accident late last month. That promise could be slowed by opposition to commit taxpayer dollars towards the project without certain guarantees. We hear and use the phrase “taxpayer dollars” so often, but what does it really mean?

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is time for left right and center everybody. I am David Green. Thank you for being here.
0:05.0	Well, Donald Trump has ended all the speculation about his position on abortion.
0:11.0	He now says each state should decide how they want to handle the issue.
0:15.7	My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the
0:21.0	states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever
0:25.8	they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state.
0:32.2	Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that's what they will be.
0:41.5	At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.
0:45.3	You must follow your heart or in many cases your religion or your faith.
0:50.8	So this is not what anti-abortion groups had hoped for from former President Trump.
0:54.8	They were hoping Trump would back some kind of federal ban on abortion, perhaps after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
1:02.2	Trump got scorn from some of his allies,
1:04.7	like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham,
1:06.9	who said the state's rights rationale on abortion
1:10.0	is going to age as well as the dread Scott decision.
1:14.0	That was the Supreme Court ruling of 1857 that said
1:17.2	enslaved people should never be US citizens.
1:21.0	Democrats have of course been trying to paint Trump as a massive threat to
1:24.8	abortion rights which made the next development in all this even more interesting.
1:29.6	Trump said let states decide and then one essentially did. The day after Trump's
1:35.0	statement Arizona's state Supreme Court held up an 1864 law banning nearly
1:40.1	all abortions. This was Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs in response to that decision.
	...

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