President-elect Donald Trump talked about how he wants to appoint pro-life justices and allow abortion laws to be decided at the state level in his first major interview since his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton last week.
While sitting down with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, the 70-year-old business mogul reaffirmed his stance as pro-life. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to — I’m pro-life. The judges will be pro-life,” Trump explained of the Supreme Court justice he will appoint to replace Antonin Scalia, who passed away unexpectedly in February.
This means that the Supreme Court would have five conservative justices to four liberal justices, making it possible for them to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion. “Having to do with abortion, if it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states,” Trump said of the law being decided on a state-by-state basis. “So it would go back to the states.”
Stahl pointed out that some women will be unable to get an abortion, and the Trump Organization founder explained that they could cross state lines for the procedure. “No. It will go back to the states. Perhaps they’ll have to go to another state,” he said. When Stahl asked if he was OK with that, he replied, “We’ll see what happens. It’s got a long way to go, just so you understand.”
Back in March, Trump suggested that women who choose to go through with the procedure should receive “some form of punishment.” The businessman later backtracked and clarified that the doctors who perform the abortion should be punished. He’s also said that he is pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and he’s against Planned Parenthood and the use of government funds to pay for abortions.
Vice President–elect Mike Pence is also vehemently pro-life. As governor of Indiana, he signed several abortion-restrictive regulations, even banning abortion in cases where the fetus has a “genetic abnormality,” and has fought to defund Planned Parenthood.