Trump Tried to Talk About Mifepristone & Sounded Like a Student Who Didn’t Do the Reading

At an unhinged press conference on Thursday, a reporter asked Trump how he'd handle medication abortion—mifepristone—if elected. His answer was almost as funny as it was terrifying.

By Kylie Cheung  |  August 9, 2024 | 3:24pm
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics
Trump Tried to Talk About Mifepristone & Sounded Like a Student Who Didn’t Do the Reading

On Thursday, former President Trump held a relatively impromptu press conference to seemingly spew nonsense about everything under the sun, from claims that he draws larger crowd sizes than Martin Luther King, Jr. did, to gibberish about how Kamala Harris’ biracial identity disrespects both Black and Indian people. Additionally, amid warnings from legal experts that Trump is likely to wield the 19th-century Comstock Act to impose a national abortion ban and crack down on abortion pills, the Republican presidential nominee fielded a question about whether he’d impose new restrictions on mifepristone, one of two commonly used medications to safely end a pregnancy. 

“There are other things the federal government could do, not just [an abortion ban]. Would you direct your FDA, for example, to revoke access to mifepristone? That’s one of the things that’s been discussed,” one reporter asked Trump, according to the 19th. Trump responded, “Sure, you can do things that will supplement. Absolutely. And those things are pretty open, and humane, but you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak.”

I’m never under the illusion that Trump knows what he’s talking about, but even for him… wow! For starters, this man can’t complete a coherent thought about abortion in general. So, sub out “abortion” with a medical term like “mifepristone”—which Trump probably can’t decipher from “ivermectin,” anti-vaxxers’ beloved horse drug that supposedly cures covid—and it’s a perfect storm for incoherent Trumpian bullshit.

The reporter asked a follow-up, attempting to clarify whether Trump was suggesting he’d impose additional restrictions on the abortion medication: “Is that something you would consider?” Trump affirmed that he would, indeed, consider revoking access to medication abortion: “There are many things on a humane basis that you can do—outside of that, but you also have to give a vote, and the people are going to have to decide.” He went on to baselessly say “abortion has become much less of an issue” and is “actually going to be a very small issue” this election cycle, which pretty much every poll readily disproves.

Two things can be true: Trump has no idea what mifepristone is—and it’s likely he’d wield the office of the presidency to impose a national abortion ban and push medication abortion, the most common form of abortion, out of reach. Weaponizing the FDA would be just one tool in his arsenal. As the far-right Heritage Foundation lays out in its chillingly detailed Project 2025, Trump could bypass Congress to prohibit the dissemination of abortion pills like mifepristone by categorizing them as “obscene materials” under the Comstock Act. After all, Trump himself doesn’t have to know anything about mifepristone, like what it is or how to say it, because anti-abortion leaders and Heritage Foundation cronies will take care of that for him. Trump appointed many of them to the Republican National Convention’s platform committee last month, and they assembled a platform that sneakily doesn’t call for a national abortion ban—instead, it recognizes fetal personhood, which is worse. It’s also worth noting that many of the individuals Trump appointed to that platform committee in 2016 then went on to work in his administration.

It’s telling that Trump told reporters that “all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak” on abortion. The former president has been insisting for months that he’d leave abortion up to the states, a political ploy motivated by the broad unpopularity of state abortion bans, let alone a national ban. This stated position counts on us to be stupid—first, supporting state-level abortion bans, including calling them “beautiful” as he did in June, is already incredibly cruel. Second, it should go without saying that Trump is a liar—his policy promises mean about as much as a degree from Trump University.

That said, it’s genuinely funny to listen to him pretend to know what mifepristone is. But that almost makes it scarier that, whether he knows what it is or not, he’d still ban it.

 
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