Vance says Trump would veto federal abortion ban

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, said former President Trump would shoot down a federal abortion ban if he recaptures the White House in the fall.

“I think he would,” Vance told NBC News’s Kristen Welker in a clip posted to the “Meet the Press” account on the social platform X Saturday. “He said that explicitly that he would.”

Trump said back in April he wouldn’t sign a nationwide abortion ban, but Democrats have been distrustful of that claim. Shortly before the Vance clip was posted, Harris said in her own post on X that in the circumstance Trump regains the presidency, “we know he will sign a national abortion ban. 

The former president also said that overturning Roe v. Wade was an “incredible achievement” in April.

“Now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want. It’s the will of the people,” he said.

Vance said in the “Meet the Press” clip that he believes “it’s important to step back and say, ‘What has Donald Trump actually said on the abortion question, and how is it different from what Kamala Harris … the Democrats have said?’”

“Donald Trump wants to end this culture war over this particular topic,” Vance said.

The clip comes as Democrats have tried to link Trump to Project 2025, a 900-page “governing agenda” from a conservative think tank describing conservative aims if Republicans gain back the White House in the fall. It features a plan that calls for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s approval of an abortion medication named mifepristone to be revoked.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, saying last month that he isn’t aware of anything “about Project 2025,” despite CNN reporting last month that it found a minimum of 140 people who had been part of the Trump administration being involved in Project 2025.

The Hill has reached out to the Harris campaign.