Trump Bets Abortion Isn’t Key to Suburban Women Vote [Video]

In 2016, Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency on an anti-abortion message, promising to appoint “pro-life” judges to the Supreme Court. In 2022, three of his nominees fulfilled that promise, voting to overturn Roe v. Wade and ending the constitutional right to an abortion. 

But 28 months after that decision changed the landscape of reproductive rights in the U.S., Trump’s campaign strategy has largely avoided direct engagement with the abortion issue. It’s a calculated risk: Trump is betting on the idea that voters, particularly women, will prioritize issues like crime and economic stability over abortion.

That strategy was on display in the final days of the campaign in North Carolina, one of the battleground states that will likely decide the outcome of the election. “The suburban women are under attack,” Trump said in a speech there on Saturday. He didn’t mention the word “abortion” once in the 90-minute speech.

For some of the North Carolina women supporting Trump, the message …