Trump's reported support of 16-week abortion ban shows GOP's hypocrisy – and need for control

It appears Donald Trump has finally defined his stance on a national abortion ban.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the presumptive Republican nominee told his advisers that he “likes” the idea of a national ban on abortion at 16 weeks, or four months into pregnancy.

It’s a startling revelation that Trump would endorse a Republican effort to go further than simply handing the abortion debate back to the states. It would also mean Trump has stopped avoiding the abortion ban question.

The Trump campaign responded Friday by highlighting the importance of states' rights, one of the primary reasons Republicans gave for wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“President Trump appointed strong Constitutionalist federal judges and Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the decision back to the states, which others have tried to do for over 50 years,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on the article.

So much for states' rights on abortion

Trump has previously bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. The Times report, though, is an escalation that would officially end the states' rights lie.

Abortion will decide 2024: Trump is 'proud' about taking away abortion rights. Republicans will keep losing because of it.

It doesn’t matter to the party that states' rights was one of the reasons the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Apparently, it doesn’t matter to Republicans that the majority of Americans disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision and say abortion should be legal to some degree, nor does it matter that the abortion-rights side has prevailed in all six states where the right to choose has been on the ballot since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling.

It does not matter to the GOP that supporting a 15-week abortion ban in Virginia led to its loss of the legislature.

It’s clear that what matters to Republicans is control.

They do not care about giving the states the authority to come up with their own abortion laws when their de facto nominee now "likes" a national ban.

They simply want to restrict what pregnant people are able to do with their bodies, even as it puts the lives of these people at risk.

Biden reminds voters he's the best bet to protect abortion rights

The comments from Trump have given President Joe Biden a chance to highlight his own stance on protecting abortion rights.

“We all know Trump promised to overturn Roe v. Wade to get elected in 2016,” Biden said in a statement on Trump’s newfound position. “Does anyone doubt Trump has already cut a deal in private to ban abortion nationwide to get elected in 2024?”

I don’t doubt this. If Trump were to win in November, it would give the party the opportunity to impose a widely unpopular decision on the United States.

Abortion rights on the ballot: Biden refocuses his campaign on abortion rights, reminding voters Trump took Roe away

Voters should believe Republicans on abortion

Conservatives have already said that they intend to do this in the 180-Day Playbook, a plan from the folks at the Heritage Foundation for 2025 that includes using the 1873 Comstock Act to prevent sending the abortion drug mifepristone through the mail.

Trump isn’t the first Republican candidate to weigh in on a national abortion ban. Before he suspended his campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he'd support a 15-week national abortion ban.

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Nikki Haley, the only candidate besides Trump left in the Republican primary race, has said that she'd commit to signing an abortion ban but didn’t specify a cutoff date.

The former president is, however, the Republican front-runner in this election.

If Trump is saying he supports a national abortion ban, voters should believe that this is the next goal of the Republican Party – even if it goes against Republicans' belief in “states’ rights” and goes past what their stated goal was eight years ago.

The party's hypocrisy apparently does not matter to them. Neither do the opinions of voters.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno and Facebook facebook.com/PequenoWrites.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump 'likes' a 16 week abortion ban. Voters should believe him