Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance on Sunday sought to walk back former President Donald Trump’s recent comments suggesting that he is open to banning access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions.
In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Ohio Republican was asked whether a Trump-Vance administration would use the Food and Drug Administration to block access to mifepristone.
“Well, no,” he said. “What the president has said very clearly is that abortion policy should be made by the states, right? You of course want to make sure that any medicine is safe and it’s prescribed in the right way, and so forth.”
Vance said Trump wants individual states and voters in those states to make decisions on abortion policies and for the federal government to respect those decisions.
He added that Trump has “consistently” said the party needs “to get out of the culture war side of the abortion issue.”
Asked by NBC News during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort last week whether he would take steps such as directing the FDA to revoke access to mifepristone, Trump said, “You could do things that ... would supplement — absolutely — those things are pretty open and humane.”
“There are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that,” the former president added, saying “you also have to give a vote” to people about abortion.
Trump’s comments on Thursday contrasted with his remarks on the abortion pill during a CNN debate in June in which he said he would “not block it.”
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, later clarified to NBC News that Trump has long held the “position of supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion.” Leavitt also said the questions asked during the press conference were “difficult to hear” and that Trump has not changed his stance on mifepristone, noting that “the Supreme Court unanimously decided on the issue and the matter is settled.”
The Supreme Court in June unanimously upheld access to mifepristone, rejecting a challenge from a group of anti-abortion doctors. However, laws surrounding access to the drug vary by state in the aftermath of the high court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.
In his interview on CBS, Vance was pressed on Trump’s remarks to NBC News last week. Vance similarly said that people at the press conference had difficulty hearing and understanding the question. He reiterated that the former president stands by the Supreme Court’s decision to allow mifepristone to stay on the market.
“Maybe he couldn’t hear that person super clearly, so I don’t want to put words in President Trump’s mouth,” Vance said. “What he said very clearly in the debate is that he agrees with the Supreme Court decision, but more importantly, he wants these decisions to be made by the states.”
In a separate appearance on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, Vance was not asked about the campaign’s approach to mifepristone but was pressed on how he would advise Trump, a Florida resident, on how to vote in the state’s November referendum on expanding abortion access.
After noting that Trump has said decisions on abortion access should be made on a state-by-state level, Vance said, “I’ll let Donald Trump offer his position and I’ll talk about it then.”
“What I would encourage him to do is to do what he’s done up to this point, which is to try to find some common ground here and try to advance some pro-family policy so that people feel like they have more options,” he said. “A lot of the reason that women choose to terminate a pregnancy is very often they don’t feel like they have any other choice. We want to give them more options to choose to have that baby, to make it easier to raise that baby.”