Donald Trump took credit for the news out of the Supreme Court on Friday that made official its decision to strike down Roe v Wade, ending 50 years of federal protections for abortion access which will now be left up to states to determine whether to ban the procedure.
“Today’s decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation,” the former US president said in a statement, before claiming that it had only been possible “because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court”.
“I did not cave to the Radical Left Democrats, their partners in the Fake News Media, or the RINOs who are likewise the true, but silent, enemy of the people,” the one-term president said. The former businessman-turned-politician went onto slam the so-called “Radical Left” who he went on to claim was “doing everything in their power to destroy our Country”.
“I will never stop fighting for the Great People of our Nation!” he added.
Mr Trump’s remarks later on Friday struck a different tune than what he’d said earlier during an exclusive interview with Fox News, where he’d credited “God” with being responsible for the striking down of Roe.
“This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago,” the former president told Fox News on Friday, shortly after the landmark decision was overturned.
The news outlet followed up by asking the one-term president what he’d like to say to his supporters who supported Roe and might find themselves disappointed with the recent 6-3 decision announced out of the high court.
“I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody,” Trump said, adding: “This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.”
During his four-year tenure as president, Mr Trump appointed three of the six Conservative judges – Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 – that ruled in favour of a Mississippi law that outlaws abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy while also overturning key precedents established by the landmark 1973 decision in Roe.
When asked by the news outlet whether he believed he may have played a role in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, he kept his reply uncharacteristically humble: “God made the decision.”
In 2016, one month before the election that would make him the 45th president of the US, Mr Trump said during a debate against his then-Democratic rival Hillary Clinton that one of his goals as commander-in-chief would be to appoint justices that would tilt the bench in a rightward direction so as to one day overturn Roe.
“Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that ... will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court,” Mr Trump said during the 2016 debate.
Mr Trump was also the first US president to join the March for Life rally, held annually in Washington by pro-life activists on the anniversary of Roe.
Though the one-term president wasn’t willing to take credit for the reversal of Roe, which has recognised a woman’s constitutional right to abortion for the past 50 years, his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, was.
“Proud of my father for what he has accomplished today,” Trump Jr tweeted on Friday, while acknowledging how his father was responsible for tilting the bench to a 6-3 Conservative majority by the time he left office.
“He gave our movement 3 strong pro-life Supreme Court Justices,” the former president’s son tweeted. “Despite the Dems and the leftwing media doing everything they could to stop their confirmations, especially with Kavanaugh, he never wavered!!!”
