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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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Former President Donald Trump said anti-abortion supporters make up only "a very small percentage" of the country.
Trump spoke on Fox News with a town hall of women about issues ranging from immigration and energy to abortion. One of the attendees asked the former president about abortion and why the government is involved. While Trump was in office seven years ago, he passed legislation to ban most abortions and worked to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. Some don't agree. You have to follow your heart," Trump said. "Some people don't. It's a very small percentage, but you have to follow your heart."
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While Trump has said he would veto a federal abortion ban, the Republican nominee does have a large base of anti-abortion supporters. Kristan Hawkins, the president of the national anti-abortion Students for Life of America, told the Associated Press that "there are differing approaches in the pro-life movement." She said her organization could "work with that direction" in terms of long-term goals.
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In 2017, while Trump was in office, the House passed legislation to ban abortions in most cases. The former President called on the Senate to approve the 20-week ban bill, though it never did.
But Trump was still able to deliver the pro-life movement's signature request. Over his four years in office, he nominated Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barret, and in 2022, a conservative-majority Supreme Court finally overturned Roe v. Wade.
"For 52 years, this issue has torn our country apart," Trump said at the Fox town hall. "Every legal scholar – the great ones – every lawyer, the Democrats, the Republicans, the liberals, the conservatives, they wanted it brought out of the federal government and into the states for the vote of the people."
Post Dobbs, some Republican-controlled states have passed their own abortion restrictions, with a ban on abortion at every stage of pregnancy now the law in 14 states. Meanwhile, most Democratic-led states have passed legislation that protects access to abortion.
Abortion and reproductive rights were seen as the biggest issue this election to 23 percent, according to polling by doxoINSIGHTS from September 12 to 23 with 1,085 doxo user households living in swing states. The results have a 3 percent margin of error.
Georgia (at 29 percent) and North Carolina (at 27 percent) care the most about health care, according to the doxo survey. For abortion and reproductive rights, Nevada residents (at 20 percent) are most concerned.
A survey by KFF in September and early October found that abortion is the most important issue this election for nearly four in 10 women under 30, a jump from just 20 percent saying so in a similar survey in late May and early June.
There are nine states—including the swing states of Arizona and Nevada—that will have abortion rights on their ballots this November.
Trump's wife, Melania, has been facing heat recently from anti-abortion Republicans over her memoir. The former first lady asked in her book, "Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?"
"A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes," Melania wrote.
Harris has seen overwhelming trust from voters when it comes to that issue. The Democratic nominee has made abortion rights center in her campaign, calling to restore abortion rights nationwide.
"I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom," Harris told NPR reporter Kate Archer Kent during an interview.
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Harris has also brought up different women's abortion and IVF stories throughout her campaign. In Georgia, last month, she told the crowd about Amber Thurman who died in 2022 of septic shock following delays in her medical care.
Thurman's family spoke in a press call hosted by Harris' campaign on Tuesday. Thurman's mother and father, along with her two sisters, CJ and Andrika Thurman, spoke on the call, which also included Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and lawyer Ben Crump.
"I'm thankful to the vice president for making my daughter's death an issue and not letting it be swept under the rug," Andre Thurman, Amber's father, said on the call, marking his first time speaking publicly about his daughter's death.
Harris' campaign has also been hosting a reproductive freedom bus tour across the battleground states. Amanda Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall have also spoken about their experiences on multiple occasions throughout the campaign, including at the Democratic National Convention.
A New York Times/Siena College poll that was released September 19 found that of their 2,427 likely voters, 54 percent trust Harris to do a better job on abortion rights compared to the 41 percent who trust Trump.
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