Trump Indicates He Would Back a 15-Week Federal Abortion Ban

Former President Donald J. Trump indicated this week that he was likely to back a 15-week federal ban on abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest and life-threatening emergencies.

The comments, which Mr. Trump made Tuesday on the WABC radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” are in line with previous reporting that he had privately expressed support for a 16-week ban. But saying it publicly ties him concretely to a position that has been toxic for many Republicans.

“The number of weeks, now, people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable,” he said. “But people are really — even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be 15 weeks, seems to be a number that people are agreeing at. But I’ll make that announcement at the appropriate time.”

He said at the same time that he thought abortion should be a state issue, and added that anti-abortion activists who wanted a ban earlier in pregnancy should understand that “you have to win elections.”

But while Mr. Trump cast 15 weeks as a compromise, such bans are broadly unpopular, according to both surveys and election results.

A KFF poll released this month found that 58 percent of Americans opposed a 16-week ban. In Virginia last year, Republicans campaigned on the 15-week threshold — describing it, as Mr. Trump is doing, as a reasonable middle ground. They lost control of the state’s House of Delegates.