Donald Trump’s latest endorsement comes from North Carolina Senator Ted Budd, an anti-choice extremist who supports a nationwide abortion ban. Trump has long been adamant about taking credit for his role in the anti-abortion movement, and Budd’s endorsement is the latest example of the Republican Party doubling down on their extreme agenda of banning abortion nationwide.

Ted Budd co-sponsored Lindsey Graham’s extreme national abortion ban last fall — which would restrict abortion across the country.

Fox 8: “National abortion ban co-sponsored by North Carolina Rep. Ted Budd”

The News & Observer: “U.S. Rep. Ted Budd expressed his support this week for [Senator Lindsey Graham’s] new proposal to ban abortion nationwide… The proposal would impose a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy”

Ted Budd has a long track record as an anti-choice extremist: He has cosponsored multiple abortion bans at the federal level — including legislation that would outlaw abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest, and that could create a pathway to criminalize health care providers who perform abortions nationwide. 

CBS17 Raleigh: “Budd was one of 29 cosponsors of H.R. 877, the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which would establish that life begins at fertilization or cloning, and that at that time ‘every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.’ He joined 165 other cosponsors of H.R. 1011, the Life at Conception Act, which would declare the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution as being ‘vested in each human being.’ … Instead, what Fields says those bills could do is ‘create a pathway’ to prosecute a doctor who performs an abortion because of the way it defines when human life begins.’”

WRAL: “The bill doesn’t mention exceptions for rape and incest, as media outlets have noted. The bill also says physicians who perform abortions outside of the bill’s limitations would be fined or ‘imprisoned not more than five years, or both.’ … The Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021 was introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and cosponsored by more than 120 other Republicans. Budd is listed as one of the bill’s 40 original sponsors”

Donald Trump and his team insist that “nobody has ever done more” for the anti-choice movement and continues to tout his role in appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Trump: “Nobody has ever done more for right to life than Donald Trump. I put three Supreme Court justices, who all voted, and they got something that they’ve been fighting for 64 years, for many, many years”

Trump: “You take a look at the right to life issue… I put on three Supreme Court judges, over 300 judges – our whole court system is different than it was… And because of the fact that I did that, you have a whole new world out there. You know, very few people have done what I’ve done.”

CNN: “‘There has been no bigger advocate for the movement than President Trump.’ said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement to CNN.”

The Washington Post: “Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement that Trump’s ‘unmatched record speaks for itself,’ pointing to his policies and appointments of antiabortion federal judges and Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, erasing a ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion and delivering a decades-long priority for conservative Christians.”