Dem
51
GOP
49
So far, Donald Trump has managed to avoid talking about abortion. That's not going to work in the general election as Democrats are going to talk about it from sunup until sundown and then some. Reporters are constantly going to ask him: "If Congress passes a bill to ban abortion nationally, will you sign it?" Trying to avoid answering will make him look weak. Eventually he is going to have to deal with the question. On Friday, The New York Times published an article saying that Trump likes the idea of an abortion ban after 16 weeks of pregnancy. The first two authors of the article are Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. They don't make stuff up.
This undoubtedly represents Trump's current thinking about abortion. It would allow women to get abortions in the first 4 months of a pregnancy, which would allow many abortions, but it does create a national ban. Trump apparently thinks this would keep most Republicans on his side (where else do they have to go?) and might even win over some Democrats. Once the law was in place, Republicans could later change 16 weeks to 15 weeks. That wouldn't get much attention. Rinse and repeat another dozen times. This is how you boil a frog.
Trump didn't like the report since he doesn't want to appear "weak on abortion" until he has the nomination in hand, ideally not until July. Consequently, he denounced the article as fake news, even if he personally gave Haberman or Swan the story. He can keep denouncing it to keep the base happy, then after formally getting the nomination, campaign on "I want a national abortion ban."
The trouble is that Democrats will campaign on Trump saying: "I want a national abortion ban." They won't mention the 16 weeks part, just the "national" and "ban" parts. Voters in blue and purple states will get the message. It is an impossible topic for Trump as the position Republican voters demand is toxic to Democrats. Nevertheless, at some point he may be forced to put his cards on the table. And we don't mean NFT trading cards. (V)