(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) doubled down on his support for national restrictions on abortion in spite of former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s attacks on him, telling reporters that the American people were behind him.
On Monday, Trump came out against passing any restrictions on abortion at the national level, causing Graham (who is sponsoring a ban on the procedure after 15 weeks gestation in Congress) and other pro-lifers to object.
“I respectfully disagree with President Trump’s statement that abortion is a states’ rights issue,” wrote Graham in a statement. “The states’ rights only rationale today runs contrary to an American consensus that would limit late-term abortions and will age about as well as the Dred Scott decision.”
Trump did not take the criticism constructively.
“Senator Lindsey Graham is doing a great disservice to the Republican Party, and to our Country,” declared Trump on Truth Social. “Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency.”
“I blame myself for Lindsey Graham, because the only reason he won in the Great State of South Carolina is because I Endorsed him,” continued Trump in a follow-up post.
But Graham, who has been a stalwart supporter of the former president’s for years, is not backing down. On Tuesday, Graham told reporters that “most Americans are where I’m at” on abortion.
Polling data would seem to lend credence to Graham’s assertion. A survey from The Economist and YouGov this February found that 48% of Americans would support a national ban on abortions after 16 weeks gestation. Just 36% of respondents said they would object to such a ban, while 16% were unsure.
Similarly, a Wall Street Journal poll conducted in 2022 as the Supreme Court considered overturning Roe v. Wade found that 48% of Americans would support a ban after 15 weeks, while 43% stood opposed to such a restriction.
