Lindsey Graham disagrees with Trump on abortion ban. What the SC senator wants to do

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is breaking with the White House hopeful’s abortion position that the decision should be left up to the states.

Graham has called for a national 15-week ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.

“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,” Graham said in a statement. “The science is clear – a child at fifteen weeks is well-developed and is capable of feeling pain.”

Trump, who is running for a second term as president in this year’s election and is the presumptive Republican nominee, posted Monday a video on his social media network Truth Social, saying the issue should be left up to the states.

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in the video.

During his one term, Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in its Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to an abortion.

Since the Dobbs decision, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont have held public referendums where voters sided with abortion supporters to protect access to the procedure.

South Carolina bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around the sixth week of a pregnancy.

Graham has argued for a 15-week ban because a fetus can feel pain at that point in a pregnancy.

“However, until we achieve this goal, the least we can do is to provide anesthesia to an unborn child facing an abortion at fifteen weeks because they can feel pain,” Graham said. “Therefore, I will be introducing new legislation requiring abortion providers to administer anesthesia to an unborn child at fifteen weeks because they are capable of feeling pain. It is common medical practice to administer anesthesia to operate on an unborn child at fifteen weeks to save their life.”

Trump called Graham’s statement a “disservice” to the GOP. He then called the overturning of Roe v. Wade “a great event, but sometimes with great events come difficulties.”

“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,” Trump said on Truth Social.