Donald Trump says abortion should be left up to states, sidestepping calls to back federal restrictions

Washington — Former President Donald Trump on Monday declined to endorse a federal abortion ban, saying that the issue should be left up to states despite encouragement from anti-abortion groups that he should back a national restriction. 

The former president has sent mixed signals on the issue for months, flirting with supporting a broader abortion ban amid dueling pressures from both Republicans and Democrats. While some in his party have made support for federal restrictions clear, Trump has on multiple occasions raised alarm about the trouble the issue has created for Republicans at the ballot box, while taking credit for the Supreme Court decision that overturned a constitutional right to an abortion. 

President Biden and Democrats, meanwhile, have sought to make abortion rights one of the defining issues in the election.