Trump Thinks Appointing Pro-Life Judges ‘Automatically’ Overturns Roe V. Wade

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. (Mark Ralston/Pool via AP)
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Donald Trump sidestepped stating his position on Roe v. Wade in the final presidential debate on Wednesday night, saying instead that it would be “automatically” overturned if he appointed pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.

“Do you want the court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade?” moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump.

“I am pro-life and I will be appointing pro-life judges,” Trump said, claiming that the decision would then “go back to the individual states.”

When pressed to state his own position, Trump simply doubled down.

“If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that will happen,” he said. “And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”

Watch the exchange below:

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Notable Replies

  1. But what if the court’s vote is rigged!!!

    We need some Trump supporters to watch the vote carefully.

  2. Trump’s true spirit animal is the weasel :wink:

  3. That is insulting to weasels. I think he looks much more like Jabba the Hut. A real slug.

  4. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    I’m willing to give him this, even though he’s being a weasel and a jerk. Once he appointed two or three rightwing nutbars to the court, either some state would pass an abortion ban and the court would uphold it. Or there would be some completely unrelated case before the new court, and footnote 97 would say, “Oh, and by the way we have decided that as a result of our reasoning here Roe v. Wade no longer holds.”

    Not quite automatic, but effect enough.

  5. Donald, 5 of the 7 justices in the majority opinion of Roe v Wade were Republican appointees.

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