Lindsey Graham breaks with Republicans on support for Trump’s abortion policy

Most Senate Republicans said they agreed with former president Donald Trump’s declaration that he would leave abortion policy to the states, with one notable exception: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Mr Trump released a video on his Truth Social platform in which he refused to back a national abortion ban, saying the issue should be left to the states.

Most Republican Senators said that they supported his position.

“Abortion is an issue on which our nation is divided, and people of good faith feel passionate on both sides of the issue,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who faces re-election in November, told The Independent. “The way our constitution operates, is issues like that are decided by the voters and the scenario we have right now is in each state, the voters make a determination as to the rules and laws consistent with their values that that's our Constitution. And that's democracy.”

Texas has one of the more stringent laws regarding abortion, banning it after six weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. President Joe Biden invited Kate Cox, a woman who had to leave Texas to terminate an unviable pregnancy, as a guest to his State of the Union address.

Senator Rick Scott of Florida told reporters that Mr Trump’s decision was in line with what the Supreme Court wrote in the Dobbs v Jackson decision in 2022. Last week, Florida’s supreme court simultaneously upheld the state’s 15-week ban--which would likely cause the state’s six-week abortion ban--while also ruling that a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution to enshrine abortion rights could go on the ballot this November.

Democrats immediately pounced on Mr Trump’s words. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Mr Biden’s campaign manager, released a memo