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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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Donald Trump has said women will be "happy and great again" if he wins the election in November.
The former president made the remark in a lengthy Truth Social post on Friday night.
"WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO!," he wrote, before saying that he will "fix all of that."
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"WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE!," he added. He went on to say the lives of women will improve because abortion will return to state-level decision-making, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and the mother's life, while opposing late-term abortions. He also promised unprecedented protections for women, ensuring their health, safety, and well-being.
"I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE, AND SECURE. THEIR LIVES WILL BE HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, AND GREAT AGAIN!" he concluded.
In response to the Truth Social post, Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Sarafina Chitika told Newsweek: "Donald Trump may think he can control women and tell us what to think, but women are not stupid. Women hear his threat that we 'will no longer be thinking about abortion' and know it is just his way of trying to trick people about his Project 2025 plan to ban abortion nationwide. Trump is scared out of his mind that women will vote like our freedoms and our lives are on the line this November—and he should be, because that's exactly what we will do."
Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek: "Kamala Harris is a blithering idiot who has no real ideas other than to throw the country off a cliff. She is unqualified and everyone knows it."
Trump has denied any association with Project 2025, a 900-page policy blueprint published by conservative allies and his former advisers to help a new Republican administration transition to power. The policy blueprint proposes the next Republican president act with Congress to protect life starting at conception and work to ban federal funding of abortion. It also proposes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "eliminate" programs and projects that are not anti-abortion and ensure it does not advocate abortion as part of health care.
Despite taking credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, which gave a Americans a constitutional right to abortion, Trump has been more moderate on the issue than many of his Republican colleagues.
In April, he declined to support a national ban on abortion and he has previously stated that he supports abortion rights being decided at state level. He has also supported exceptions for cases of rape and incest.
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However, in the first presidential debate against his opponent Kamala Harris of the cycle, he declined to say whether he would veto a national ban if it landed on his desk.
When moderator Linsey Davis asked him this directly, he said: "Well I won't have to because it won't happen."
When she pressed Trump, citing the fact that his running mate JD Vance has previously said the former president would veto it, Trump answered: "Well I didn't discuss it with JD, in all fairness."
Trump, who has previously described himself as "most pro-life president in American history," had said Harris was lying when she repeated claims he would ban abortion nationally if he won the White House. "I'm not signing a ban, it's a lie," he said.
"I'm not in favor of an abortion ban, but it doesn't matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states," he added.
Abortion has proved to be an important issue in this election after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 — a decision in which Trump played a key role after appointing three conservative judges to the High Court during his term. Since the ruling, 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and three states have enacted six-week bans, according to an ABC News tally made in June.
Some 34 percent of eligible voters in the U.S. have said that abortion is an issue that is most likely to determine how they would vote in the election, according to exclusive polling carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek.
Out of these 862 people, 19 percent said they would vote for Trump and 53 percent said they would vote for Harris.
This survey was carried out on August 29, with a sample size of 2,500, with a 1.96-percentage point margin of error.
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in September found that 54 percent of likely voters trust Harris to do a better job on abortion rights compared with 41 percent who trust Trump.
Harris appears to be more popular among women than Trump. The most recent YouGov/Economist poll, conducted between September 15 and 17, found that 50 percent of women planned to vote for Harris in November, while 42 percent said they would vote for Trump.
Update 9/24/24, 3:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from spokespeople for the Harris and Trump campaigns.
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