Trump Unclear on Abortion Pills in Interview
In a lengthy interview with Time as part of the magazine’s designation of him as 2024 Man of the Year, president-elect Donald J. Trump gave an unclear answer to questions about whether his FDA would prevent access to medication abortions through abortion pills. Asked initially if he would “vow that FDA will not do anything to limit access to medication abortion or abortion pills,” he first said, “Well, we’re going to take a look at that.”
When told the interviewer was asking about the abortion pill, he responded, “It’s unlikely, very unlikely…. You know my stance from a long campaign. I was against that….Strongly against.”
Asked if he was saying he is against the abortion pill, he replied, “No, I was against stopping it…. So I don’t see any reason why it changed, but somebody could come up with something that, you know, this horrible thing.”
Asked if he would not rule out FDA action against the drug, he said, “Look, I’ve stated it very clearly and I just stated it again very clearly. I think it would be highly unlikely. I can’t imagine, but with, you know, we’re looking at everything, but highly unlikely. I guess I could say probably as close to ruling it out as possible, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to do anything now. I want to do it at some point. There will be a time in the future where people are going to know everything about subjects like that, which are very complex subjects for people, because you have other people that, you know, they feel strongly both ways, really strongly both ways, and those are the things that are dividing up the country. But you know my stand from a very long, hard thing, and I think it’s highly unlikely that I ever change that….”
As the interviewers tried again and said that the women of America want to know if he is committed to making sure that FDA does not strip their ability to access abortion pills, Trump responded, “That would be my commitment. Yeah, it’s always been my commitment.”
Moving to vaccines and his HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a noted vaccine skeptic, Trump was asked if HHS moved to end childhood vaccination programs would he be onboard with that? "We're going to have a big discussion, he responded. "The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. "If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it." He was further asked if his administration would get rid of some vaccinations, which Trump said was possible if he is convinced they are dangerous or not beneficial,
The interview then moved to other topics.