Trump Is Fine With States Monitoring Pregnant Women So They Don't Get Abortions

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said states with abortion bans should be free to monitor pregnant women to make sure they don’t terminate their pregnancies, suggesting that would be in line with his newfound position of leaving abortion rights up to the states.

“I think they might do that,” Trump said in a TIME interview published Tuesday, when asked if he thinks states with abortion bans should track women who are pregnant.

“Again, you’ll have to speak to the individual states,” he continued. “Look, Roe v. Wade was all about bringing it back to the states.”

After months of giving mixed messages on abortion rights, Trump declared a few weeks ago that his position is that it’s up to states to decide their own laws.

But his position has long been that he opposes abortion rights.

He campaigned in 2016 on nominating conservative Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. That is exactly what happened, and the three justices he put on the court were the driving force behind a ruling that removed the country’s 50-year constitutional right to abortion.

Trump’s positioning now, by putting the onus on state governments, aims to absolve him of any responsibility for restrictions that GOP-led states are currently placing on abortion. Reproductive rights are going to be a huge issue in the November elections, and Trump is trying to appear neutral on an issue he’s never been neutral on.

But the problem he’s created for himself — and for Republicans following his lead — is that by saying he supports states doing whatever they choose, he is implicitly accepting whatever restrictions they may impose, including steps as extreme as monitoring pregnant women to stop them from having abortions.

In his TIME