Power

Trump Flippant About Abortion Care Access If ‘Roe’ Is Overturned

The Republican president-elect on 60 Minutes Sunday night reiterated his pledge to nominate Supreme Court justices who are hostile to abortion rights.

Trump suggested during his CBS interview that it was “irrelevant” whether he supports marriage equality as “it was settled in the Supreme Court.” He added that marriage equality “had been settled. And, I’m fine with that.” CBS Evening News / YouTube

Republican President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes that many women would have to travel across state lines for abortion care if the landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade were overturned, glossing over the consequences this would have for those seeking care.

Reiterating his promise to appoint anti-choice justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump told Lesley Stahl that he is “pro-life” and that “the judges will be pro-life.”

“But what about overturning” the law, asked Stahl, referring to Roe.

Trump replied that “if it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states.” When pushed by Stahl to explain what would happen to people in states that made abortion care unavailable, Trump noted that some will have to travel to find care.

“They’ll perhaps have to go, they’ll have to go to another state,” Trump said.

“And that’s OK,” asked Stahl.

“Well, we’ll see what happens,” Trump continued. “It’s got a long way to go, just so you understand. That has a long, long way to go.”

Many patients are already forced to travel across state lines to seek abortion care, thanks to restrictions in their states.

Trump claimed in the third presidential debate that overturning Roe “will happen automatically” should he be elected, because he would only nominate anti-choice figures to the Supreme Court. `

Trump suggested during his CBS interview that it was “irrelevant” whether he supports marriage equality as “it was settled in the Supreme Court.” He added that marriage equality “had been settled. And, I’m fine with that.”

Though Trump has repeatedly vowed to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would jeopardize coverage for the 21.3 million people who have gained insurance since the ACA’s key provisions were implemented, he told Stahl that he would allow some aspects of President Obama’s signature health-care law to remain. He said he would keep the ACA’s protections for those with pre-existing conditions “because it happens to be one of the strongest assets” of the law.

“Also, with the children living with their parents for an extended period, we’re gonna … very much try and keep that,” said Trump, referring to the ACA provision allowing young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until the age of 26. “Adds cost, but it’s very much something we’re going to try and keep.”

Trump made no mention of whether he would keep the ACA’s birth control benefit. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) refused to say during a Sunday interview on CNN’s State of the Union whether a Republican plan to replace the ACA would include the benefit, which requires insurers to cover FDA-approved forms of contraception without a co-pay as a “preventative service.”

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals about legislation that hasn’t even been drafted yet,” Ryan said.