Trump would veto legislation establishing a national abortion ban, Vance says

Vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance set out Donald Trump’s view that decisions surrounding abortion are best left up to the states

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Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance. Photo: AP

Published: 4:18am, 26 Aug 2024Updated: 12:34pm, 26 Aug 2024

Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance has said Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

“I can absolutely commit that,” Vance said when asked on NBC’s Meet the Press programme whether he could commit to Trump not imposing such a ban. “Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue.”

The Ohio senator also insisted that Trump, the former president who is the Republican nominee this year, would veto such legislation if it were passed by Congress.

“I mean, if you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” he said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Vance’s comments come after Democrats spent night after night of their national convention in Chicago last week assailing Trump for his role in appointing the Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe vs Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and paving the way for bans and restrictions across Republican-led states.