Trump told Time that states should decide abortion laws. He didn't say they 'should' punish women.

Democrats wasted no time blasting former President Donald Trump over his comments about abortion in interviews with Time magazine.

Within 24 hours of Time’s April 30 online rollout of its cover story about Trump’s vision for a second term, top Democratic lawmakers nationwide issued condemnations, including President Joe Biden.

"Trump did a long interview in Time magazine," Biden said at a May 1 campaign reception. "It’s coming out. You got to read it. It’s a mandatory reading. And he said in that magazine, he said states should monitor women’s, now, get this, states should monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. Monitor women’s pregnancies?"

Some of Biden’s allies made similar points on X. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Trump "said again that women should be punished for abortions." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Trump "endorses punishing women who get an abortion."

But these claims go further than what Trump said. Trump didn’t endorse either policy, and instead acknowledged to the Time reporter, Eric Cortellessa, that states may decide to introduce criminal abortion penalties or monitor women for legal compliance. He wouldn’t share his opinion on whether they should, calling his comfort "irrelevant." 

Vice President Kamala Harris was more careful in her Jacksonville, Florida, campaign stop, saying Trump told the magazine that states have the right to monitor and punish women over abortion. That more accurately summed up Trump’s remarks, though he was not that direct.

Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer told PolitiFact that Trump was "clear" in his interview. 

"He believes states should be allowed to ban abortion, monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute women if they violate those bans," Singer wrote in an email. "That is what the President was speaking about. Neither the President nor our campaign are going to allow Donald Trump off the hook on this."

PolitiFact reached out to Trump’s campaign to get more clarity on his position and received no response. 

Time published transcripts from two interviews Cortellessa had with Trump in April.

Cortellessa tried asking Trump several abortion-related questions, including whether he would veto federal abortion restrictions and how he would vote on Florida’s proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion access. Trump turned the focus onto the states without giving his personal take.

Then, Cortellessa asked, "Do you think states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion after the ban?" 

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Ron DeSantis

stated on April 23, 2024 in a news conference

Florida’s Amendment 4 "will mandate abortion until the moment of birth.”

Trump replied, "I think they might do that. Again, you'll have to speak to the individual states." 

As Trump began talking about Roe v. Wade, the legal precedent that allowed federal abortion access until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in 2022, Cortellessa jumped in. The journalist mentioned states "prosecuting women" who received illegal abortions and he asked Trump whether he was comfortable with that.

Trump said his comfort was irrelevant. Here’s the transcript:

Cortellessa: "States will decide if they're comfortable or not —" 

Trump: "Yeah the states —"

Cortellessa: "Prosecuting women for getting abortions after the ban. But are you comfortable with it?" 

Trump: "The states are going to say. It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It's totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions. And by the way, Texas is going to be different than Ohio. And Ohio is going to be different than Michigan. I see what's happening."

Cortellessa featured Trump’s abortion comments high in the Time story, characterizing them by saying Trump "would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans." 

Democrats have been focusing on the possibility of state-level abortion penalties. So far, such efforts to punish women have foundered.  

Lawmakers in states such as Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Kansas and South Carolina have offered bills that could allow the prosecution of women who have abortions. None has advanced far; some Republican leaders have come out against them as too extreme. PolitiFact couldn’t find any bills introduced so far that would require monitoring of pregnancies to prevent abortions.

This is not the first time Biden has said that Trump supports punishing women for getting abortions. We have rated previous claims Mostly False. In a 2016 MSNBC town hall, host Chris Matthews asked about penalties for abortion, and Trump said there has to be "some form of punishment" for women. But Trump retracted the comment that same day, amid criticism, and issued a statement that said he meant that physicians should be held legally responsible, not women.

Biden said Trump said that states "should" monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute women who violate abortion bans. 

Trump didn’t tell Time that he believed states should do this. He said they might. 

His comments allowed for the possibility that states could monitor and punish women for getting illegal abortions. He wouldn’t explain how he felt, telling the reporter to ask the states about monitoring and punishment because "it’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not." 

Biden’s statement contains an element of truth that Trump’s position would allow states to monitor and punish women over illegal abortions, but it ignores the critical detail that Trump did not say states "should" do this. We rate Biden’s statement Mostly False.