<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Donald Trump never misses a chance to remind voters that he was the one to appoint three justices to the US Supreme Court who voted to ditch the federal right to an abortion.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But ask the 77-year-old what he thinks personally about abortion, and his position starts to shift, the self-declared "most pro-life president in American history" well aware of what a hardline stance might cost him at the polls.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trump was evasive when asked repeatedly this month about introducing nationwide bans or limits on abortion -- as some of his Republican challengers have proposed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It could be state or it could be federal, I don't frankly care," the former president and current Republican front-runner said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few days later, he firmed up his position, saying he believed in exceptions for abortion bans including in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life was in danger.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After all, he said, "without exceptions, it is very difficult to win elections."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Not popular' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 was the culmination of decades of Republican strategy, the gutting of federal abortion rights also kicked off a national backlash -- even among conservative voters who still wish for some access to abortion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two months after the Supreme Court decision, voters in Republican-dominated Kansas rejected a referendum that would have paved the way to ban the procedure in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Republicans have seen further electoral disappointments in New York, Wisconsin and Ohio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And while Republicans won the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms, their slim victory was blunted in part by women and young voters mobilized to protect abortion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think Trump understands that the (Supreme Court) decision is not popular, nor is the mainstream Republican position on abortion," political scientist Kyle Kondik told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"So Trump is looking ahead to the general election and trying to give himself some room to maneuver on the issue... But it's not going to be hard for Democrats to tie him to the unpopular (court) decision."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It wouldn't be the first time Trump held -- or at least professed -- a softer opinion on abortion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a 1999 interview, the real-estate magnate declared "I'm very pro-choice."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he now needs to win over the country's evangelical electorate, who delivered him to office in 2016 and remain a key part of his base, according to public opinion polling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Explaining his comments' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the end of Roe means that abortion regulation has returned to the state-level, most of Trump's Republican opponents have been pushing for federal restrictions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the number two in the Republican race, banned abortions after six weeks in his southern state -- before most women know they're pregnant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trump called the Florida ban a "terrible mistake."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats," DeSantis declared at Wednesday's Republican debate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead, he argued that Trump -- who skipped the shouting match in light of his commanding lead in the polls -- "should be here explaining his comments, to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Trump versus Biden -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Democratic Party has not only enjoyed the Republican infighting, but also made abortion a central part of its campaigns.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In conservative Kentucky, where the governorship is up for grabs this year, a striking ad puts pressure on Trump.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In it, a woman raped by her stepfather as a child blasts the state's abortion restrictions, saying that telling "a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather, who raped her, is unthinkable."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Joe Biden's reelection campaign, is betting the Supreme Court decision will still be fresh in voters' minds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Since Roe was overturned, Americans have rejected MAGA Republicans' anti-abortion extremism," he said in a statement. "And they'll do it again in 2024." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>