In response to Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins’ new interview doubling down on a national abortion ban, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“The anti-choice extremists working hand-in-hand with the Trump-Vance ticket know that the RNC platform ‘absolutely’ paves the way for Donald Trump and JD Vance to enact their dangerous Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide with or without Congress. Trump has already been clear that he sees a ‘vital role for the federal government’ in banning abortion after his handpicked justices ended Roe v. Wade, while Vance wants abortion ‘illegal nationally.’ If given the chance, this extreme ticket will further rip away freedoms from women across the country.”

In a new interview, Donald Trump ally and Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins said the RNC platform “absolutely” paves the way for a national abortion ban.

Coaston: “My last question is a yes or no question, which is challenging, but let’s see if we can do it. Does the 2024 Republican National Committee platform get you closer to your goal of abolishing abortion and making it “illegal and unthinkable?”

Hawkins: “Yes, absolutely. The 14th Amendment is in there.”

Hawkins made clear Trump and Vance’s anti-choice allies want “no abortions in any state” while opposing exceptions in abortion bans and pledging to continue pushing for a ban on medication abortion.

Hawkins: “We have said from the very beginning, even when we were suffering under the tyranny of Roe v. Wade, that the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement is to see no abortions in any state and women and families served and protected from the predatory abortion industry.”

Hawkins: “We were pleased to see that the 14th Amendment was actually in the platform — that took some education…

[…]

Coaston: “As the Republican Party seems to set aside discussing the idea of a national abortion ban, is the long-term goal to get that 14th Amendment Supreme Court opinion?”

Hawkins: “Yeah. I don’t think that has been a hidden agenda at all within the pro-life movement.”

[…]

Hawkins: “The Supreme Court did not say chemical abortions are good to go. They said the case had not been handled correctly, and they didn’t feel that the plaintiffs were the ones that could bring the suit. We’ll be back at the Supreme Court on that issue.”

[…]

Hawkins: “I could never say certain children should be sentenced to death because of their parents’ income levels or circumstances of their conception…”

REMINDER: Trump and Vance’s Project 2025 agenda includes a national abortion ban. 

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.” 

Trump on if he would sign a six-week national abortion ban: “I’m looking at all options.”

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”

“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”

Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions”

Daily Beast: “J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and dismissed those catalysts as ‘inconvenient.’”

New York Times: “Allies of former President Donald J. Trump and officials who served in his administration are planning ways to restrict abortion rights if he returns to power that would go far beyond proposals for a national ban or the laws enacted in conservative states across the country.

“Behind the scenes, specific anti-abortion plans being proposed by Mr. Trump’s allies are sweeping and legally sophisticated. Some of their proposals would rely on enforcing the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law from 1873, to criminalize the shipping of any materials used in an abortion — including abortion pills, which account for the majority of abortions in America.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

“GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike.”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Mother Jones: “Now, there’s proof that a top RNC official who helped craft the platform agrees—and wants everyone to know that the party is not softening its increasingly extreme anti-abortion stance.

“A day after the adoption of the platform, Ed Martin—president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, a conservative group, and one of three people the RNC and the Trump campaign appointed to run the committee that wrote the platform—appeared to suggest on his radio show, Pro America Report, that the platform signals support for a federal abortion ban: ‘It’s got protections for pro-life. Don’t let anybody tell you there’s not protections for pro-life,’ Martin said. ‘There’s not as many words describing it, but there’s protection under the Constitution, that life is protected.’”

Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”

New York Times: “Roberts told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025, a transition blueprint that outlines a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, dismantle federal agencies and recruit and vet government employees to free the next Republican president from a system that Roberts views as stacked against conservative power. The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”

REALITY CHECK: Attacks on reproductive rights, like Trump and Vance’s anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to rip away reproductive freedoms, are wildly unpopular.

USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”

Axios: “Record share of U.S. voters back abortion rights and will vote on it: Gallup”

NBC News: “Abortion rights have won in every election since Roe v. Wade was overturned”

Axios: “Most Americans support abortion access one year after Roe v. Wade: poll”

CNN Poll: “About two-thirds (65%) oppose the 2022 Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and 34% approve, numbers that have remained effectively unchanged in CNN’s polling across the nearly two years since the ruling. Those who strongly disapprove of the decision continue to outnumber those who strongly approve by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

“A 69% majority who disapprove of overturning Roe, including 82% of those who strongly disapprove, say that federal politicians should work to pass laws ensuring national abortion access.”

Axios: “There’s widespread support for letting women obtain drugs for medication abortion from their doctor or a clinic, with 72% supporting — including half of Republicans.”