Try to Make Any Sense of What Trump Says Here About the Abortion Pill

Donald Trump isn’t ruling out a ban of the abortion pill mifepristone, he said at his long and rambling press conference Thursday.

NBC News correspondent Garrett Haake asked Trump if he would take other measures against abortion rights besides an outright ban, specifically mentioning revoking access to mifepristone. Trump gave an open-ended answer.

“You could do things that will be—would supplement absolutely, and those things are pretty open and humane, but you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak,” Trump said.

“Is that something you would consider?” Haake followed up.

“There are many things on a humane basis you can do outside of that, but you also have to give a vote, and the people are going to say …” Trump trailed off.

Beneath the former president and convicted felon’s word salad is a signal that he is open to banning the pill. The Supreme Court shot down a right-wing legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval in June, but Republicans in Louisiana have successfully restricted access. It’s no secret that banning the abortion pill is a top priority of religious conservatives, as Project 2025 explicitly mentions banning “chemical abortion” and includes several ways to carry such a ban out.

During his presidential campaign, Trump has tried to publicly downplay Republican efforts to ban or restrict abortion, but his messages to the Christian right suggest otherwise. The conservative operatives crafting policies for a possible Trump administration are more concerned with framing rather than softening any anti-abortion measures, even if that means severe punishments for women who get abortions as well as the people who help them.

Trump has also pushed the Republican lie that Democrats like President Biden support “abortion after birth,” even repeating it in Thursday’s press conference. It seems that Trump is trying to hide his abortion views from the public, tell friendly audiences what they want to hear, and then carry out the bidding of conservatives if he returns to the White House.