Trump Team Tries to Clarify Remarks on Florida Abortion Rights Measure

Former President Donald J. Trump suggested on Thursday that he might support a ballot measure that would expand abortion rights in his adopted state of Florida, though his campaign quickly sought to make clear that his remarks were not indicative of how he would vote.

In an interview with NBC, Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was asked on how he would vote on the measure known as Amendment 4, which would guarantee the right to abortion “before viability,” usually around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Mr. Trump initially repeated his past criticism of the state’s current ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. When pressed further, he stopped short of outright endorsing the proposal but said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

The only way to do that directly on the November ballot would be to vote “Yes” on Amendment 4, which would put Mr. Trump at odds with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and most of the state’s Republican leaders, who have vowed to defeat the measure.

Later on Thursday, however, Mr. Trump’s campaign said in a statement that the former president “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.”

“He simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” said the statement from Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary.

Florida, which now trends Republican, is no longer considered a top-priority battleground state. But most polls show that Amendment 4 is more popular than even Mr. Trump is in the state.

That indicates that many voters could split their ticket and vote both for the former president and for expanded abortion rights. But the measure would need to meet a high threshold — more than 60 percent support — to pass.

Mr. Trump has shifted his views on abortion and for months has refused to take sides on the Florida referendum. In April, after the State Supreme Court allowed the measure on the November ballot, shaking up the state’s politics, Mr. Trump said at the time that he would address the issue “next week.” He made a similar statement during a news conference this month in Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach estate.

In a statement, the Yes on 4 campaign called the amendment “a nonpartisan issue.”

“Republican, Democrat or independent, the overwhelming majority of Floridians do not want the government making decisions for them when it comes to something as personal and complicated as pregnancy,” said Natasha Sutherland, the campaign’s communication director.

Mr. Trump appointed justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Mr. DeSantis signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban last year, and it went into effect in May. Mr. DeSantis previously enacted a 15-week abortion ban in 2022; before then, Florida allowed abortions up to 24 weeks.

Last year, when Mr. DeSantis was still running against Mr. Trump in the Republican presidential primary, Mr. Trump denounced the six-week ban as “a terrible mistake.”

This year, Mr. DeSantis and leading Florida Republicans have helped finance the campaign against Amendment 4, calling it too extreme.

Before Mr. Trump’s campaign walked back his comments on Thursday, his remark had prompted the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America to issue a statement noting that Mr. Trump ”has consistently opposed abortions after five months of pregnancy.”

“Voting for Amendment 4 completely undermines his position,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, said in the statement.

The group later issued a “correction.”

“I spoke with President Trump this evening,” Ms. Dannenfelser said. “He has not committed to how he will vote on Amendment 4.”