Donald Trump Receives Backlash From GOP Governors for Calling Abortion Ban ‘Terrible’: "Trump Is Wrong"

Republican governors who have pushed for abortion restrictions in their states and who have been vehemently anti-abortion are attacking Donald Trump for his recent remark that Florida's six-week abortion ban is “a terrible thing,” POLITICO reported.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who herself signed a similar abortion bill in July, defended the Florida ban on Twitter. “It’s never a ‘terrible thing’ to protect innocent life,” she posted. “I’m proud of the fetal heartbeat bill the Iowa legislature passed and I signed in 2018 and again earlier this year,” referring to the same bill.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also made identical remarks on Tuesday, emphasizing the state's efforts to limit access to abortion procedures. More than a dozen Republican-led states have outlawed abortion since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, while other states have implemented major restrictions. 

DeSantis sided firmly with the governor of Iowa in his remark. The six-week law he signed is still being contested in state courts. “I applaud Governor @KimReynoldsIA and the Iowa legislature for promoting a culture of life,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Donald Trump is wrong to attack the heartbeat bill as ‘terrible.’ Standing for life is a noble cause.”

“There’s nothing terrible about standing up for life. In addition to passing the heartbeat bill, Georgia has proudly protected and valued life through implementing adoption and foster care reforms, and combatting human trafficking - and will continue to do so as long as I’m governor,” GA governor Brian Kemp wrote, slamming Trump.

Numerous conservative activists have criticized Trump over the remark, including the head of the well-known advocacy group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who also stated the previous president was "wrong" for expressing it.

All this heat against Trump comes in after he commented on a six-week abortion ban DeSantis signed in April, telling journalist Kristen Welker in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

Looking ahead at the general elections as he dominates the Republican primary, Trump seems like he wants to thread the needle on the subject. 

While he helped secure a conservative Supreme Court majority that destroyed abortion rights, he appears to be wary of moving farther to the right on the subject, especially when he can use his position to contrast with DeSantis, the GOP's second-best candidate. But perhaps as he's aware of the importance of the topic, Trump resorted to social media on Tuesday to defend his record on abortion.

“I was able to do something that nobody thought was possible, end Roe v. Wade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “For 52 years, people talked, spent vast amounts of money, but couldn’t get the job done. I got the job done!”