Former President Donald Trump said he believes abortion should be left to the states in a video released Monday morning, laying out his position after months of mixed messages and speculation.

Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights,” Trump said in the video on his Truth Social site. My view is that now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal perspective, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide, in this case it has to be the law of the land, the law of the state.”

Trump did not say in the video when during pregnancy he believes abortion should be banned, and refused to endorse a national border that would have been used as a cudgel by Democrats ahead of the November election. But Trump’s endorsement of the patchwork approach leaves him open to attachment to the strongest proposed state legislation, which President Joe Biden and his re-election campaign have already been working on.

In the video, Trump again claimed credit for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, saying he was proud to be the person responsible for ending the constitutional right to abortion, and thanked the conservative justices who struck it down by name.

While again expressing support for three exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger, he then described the current legal landscape, in which different states have different restrictions following the court’s Dobbs v. Ruling from the Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, which announced the Roe v. Wade decision.

Many states will be different. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will be more conservative than others and they will be. Ultimately, it’s all about the will of the people.

The announcement drew immediate condemnation from SBA Pro-Life America, one of the country’s most prominent anti-abortion rights groups.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protection and national advocacy against the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both the states and Congress to take action.

Biden’s campaign said Trump endorsed every abortion ban in the United States, including abortion bans without exceptions.

And he brags about his role in creating this hellish landscape, campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said on X.

Trump had suggested in a radio interview last month that he was leaning toward supporting a national abortion ban around the 15th week of pregnancy, early in the second trimester.

People now agree on the number of weeks to be fifteen. And I think in terms of that, he said on WABC radio. And it will end up being something very reasonable. But people really agree, even hardliners agree, it seems like 15 weeks seems like a number that people agree on.

At the same time, Trump seemed reluctant to embrace a federal ban.

Everyone agrees that you have been hearing this for years. All legal scholars on both sides agree: it is a matter of state. It shouldn’t be a federal issue, it’s a state issue, he said.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had written on his social media site on Sunday evening that he planned to issue a statement on abortion and abortion rights “after sidestepping questions about when he thinks the line should be drawn during a pregnancy.”

Republican-led states have ushered in a wave of new restrictions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Democrats believe the fight over abortion rights will help them in the election and have since performed better than expected in elections.

Trump has long argued that the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe gave those who oppose abortion rights enormous negotiating power. He said he wanted to use that influence to broker a deal that he hoped would make both sides happy and unite the country, even though the issue is one of the most controversial in American politics, with opponents opposing abortion regard it as murder and proponents see it as murder. a fundamental women’s right.

Trump has tried to push abortion throughout the campaign. He routinely takes credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who decided Roe v. Wade, “which he has called a moral and unconstitutional atrocity,” and has called himself the most pro-life president in American history.

But he has also repeatedly criticized fellow Republicans for being too tough on the issue, blaming candidates who did not allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the pregnant person’s life was at stake because of the losing the party in November.

Many pro-life politicians do not know how to discuss this issue and lose their elections. We suffered a lot of election losses because of this because they didn’t know how to talk about it. They had no idea, he said at the Concerned Women of America 2023 Leadership Summit.

In the video, Trump told Republicans to “follow your heart on this issue. But don’t forget that you also have to win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very unfortunately a country in decline. .

Instead, he has tried to portray Democrats as being extreme on this issue.

We must remember that Democrats are the radicals in this position, he said in the video.

Democrats and President Joe Biden’s campaign have since highlighted the issue as they try to draw a contrast with Trump.

Polls consistently show that most Americans believe abortion should be legal during the early stages of pregnancy. About half of American adults say abortions should be allowed after 15 weeks, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted last June.

Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the vast majority of abortions between 2012 and 2021 were performed within the first thirteen weeks of pregnancy.

Roe v. The Wade decision established the constitutional right to abortion up to the point of viability, approximately 23 or 24 weeks into pregnancy.

Abortions later in pregnancy are rare and are often performed due to severe fetal abnormalities, when the mother’s life is at risk, or when women have experienced significant delays in accessing the procedure, according to health policy research firm KFF.

Jill Colvin writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.