In the first presidential election since the Dobbs ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights is one of the most heated issues and something that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will look to reach voters on. Trump’s views on abortion have varied throughout the decades (both before and after he entered politics), and he has fluctuated during this election cycle.

The former president’s Supreme Court appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett led to the conservative victory on Dobbs, something that Trump has acknowledged. “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it,” he said during a Fox News town hall in January. He also called the repeal a miracle. At other times though, he has seemed eager to put space between himself and anti-abortion efforts. During the same Fox News town hall, he offered a more measured take, saying “I happen to be for the exceptions, like Ronald Reagan, with the life of the mother, rape, incest.”

About 38 percent of overall Republicans and as many as 67 percent of moderate or left-leaning Republicans support legal abortion in nearly all cases. After the Democrats over-performed in the 2022 midterm elections, many members of the Republican party began to refine their positions. Trump has as well. Below, see where Trump has stood on abortion throughout his career.

His history with abortion

In 1989, the New York Times reported that Trump was named as the co-host of a dinner to honor Robin Chandler Duke, the president emeritus of the National Abortion Rights Action League. The event was held at the Plaza, which Trump then owned. He did not attend the dinner.

When he appeared on Meet the Press in October 1999, Trump said, “I am very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. … I just believe in choice. Again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because there [are] some different attitude[s] in some different parts of the country. … I was raised in New York and grew up and worked and everything else in New York City. But I am strongly pro-choice.”

When Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011, he called himself “pro-life.”

His stances on abortion during the 2016 campaign

In 2015, as he was campaigning for the presidency, he was asked about his promise to defund Planned Parenthood. “I would look at the good aspects of it and I would also look, because I’m sure they do some things properly and good, good for women, and I would look at that,” he said to CNN. Months later he vowed to defund Planned Parenthood in a GOP debate, though he also acknowledged the services it offers. “Millions of millions of women—cervical cancer, breast cancer—are helped by Planned Parenthood,” he said. “I would defund it because I’m pro-life, but millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood.”

He explained his shift in thinking in a 2015 Republican debate, when he referenced his 1999 statement calling himself pro-choice. “I am pro-life. And if you look at the question, I was in business. They asked me a question as to pro-life or choice. And I said if you let it run, that I hate the concept of abortion. I hate the concept of abortion. And then since then, I’ve very much evolved,” he said. “And what happened is friends of mine years ago were going to have a child, and it was going to be aborted. And it wasn’t aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child. And I saw that. And I saw other instances.”

On March 30, 2016, he told an MSNBC town hall that he believed women should be punished for getting abortions. Later that day, he released a contradictory statement, saying, “This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions, which I have outlined numerous times.” He refined that point when he released a second statement that said, “If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed—like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.”

Later that week, when speaking with Face the Nation, he provided a different answer. “The laws are set now on abortion and that’s the way they’re going to remain until they’re changed,” he said. “I would’ve preferred states’ rights. I think it would’ve been better if it were up to the states. But right now, the laws are set…. At this moment, the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.” Amid criticism of that answer, his campaign quickly issued a statement: “Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now—until he is president…Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn. There is nothing new or different here.”

In an October 2016 debate later that year, Trump said that he would appoint justices that would overturn Roe.

Trump on abortion as president and the 2024 candidate

Once elected, Trump supported anti-abortion legislation. He supported a House bill known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would make most abortions after 20 weeks illegal.

After the Dobbs decision, Trump swung between claiming credit to the fall of Roe and distancing himself from the unpopularity of the decision. Following the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats exceeded expectations, he defended himself in a Truth Social post.

In January 2024, he criticized governor Ron Desantis’s support of a six-week ban on abortion and suggested it might be to blame for his drop in the polls. Throughout 2024, he has continued to avoid answering questions on abortion. At other times, he has distanced himself from talk of a national ban.