His comments appeared to be a shift from June, when he said during a CNN debate, "I will not block it."

Aug. 9, 2024, 9:10 AM PDT
By Garrett Haake and Alexandra Marquez

During a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday, former President Donald Trump would not rule out revoking access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions.

"You could do things that .... would supplement — absolutely — those things are pretty open and humane," Trump said in response to a question from NBC News about whether he would take steps like directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone.

"There are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that," Trump added, saying that "you also have to give a vote" to people about abortion.

Trump's comments Thursday appeared to be a shift from his position in June, when the former president said at a CNN debate: "I will not block it."

In response to clarifying questions on Trump's position, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, told NBC News: "As President Trump said, he wants ‘everybody to vote’ on the issue, reiterating his long-held position of supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion."

Leavitt later clarified, "As President Trump said numerous times during the press conference, the questions being asked were difficult to hear. His position on mifepristone remains the same — the Supreme Court unanimously decided on the issue and the matter is settled."

The idea of directing the FDA to revoke access to mifepristone is a core policy plan in Project 2025, a 900-plus page document written by conservative groups and organized by the Heritage Foundation that lays out a governing plan for the next GOP presidential administration.

Trump and his campaign have disavowed Project 2025, though the initiative is affiliated with many Trump allies and former advisers.

Also at Thursday's press conference, Trump was also asked how he planned to vote in Florida’s ballot initiative this fall to expand abortion access. The former president, a Florida resident, didn’t say how he would vote but teased a future announcement on that and added that abortion isn’t a “big factor anymore.”

Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez criticized Trump's comments in a statement Thursday.

“Already, women across the country are suffering because of the nightmare Donald Trump unleashed by overturning Roe v. Wade," she said. "That reality — women forced to the brink of death before receiving the care they need, doctors facing the threat of jail time for doing their jobs, and survivors of rape and incest made to flee their states for basic health care — will only get worse if Donald Trump wins and wipes out access to medication abortion.”

The abortion pill mifepristone has been at the center of the political sphere since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

In late 2022, a lawsuit filed in Texas by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sought to invalidate the FDA's approval of mifepristone. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to win the case, preserving access nationwide to abortion pills.

At the time, RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said in a statement: "The Supreme Court has unanimously decided 9-0. The matter is settled."