Former President Donald J. Trump said at a rally Monday that he would protect women voters by making their communities safer and that they would “not think about abortion.”
“You will be protected, and I will be your protector,” said Mr. Trump, who polls show is struggling to win the support of women, for whom abortion rights remain a major issue.
Speaking in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, where Vice President Kamala Harris has a slight lead in recent polls, Trump chafed at the prospect that his struggles with women voters could cost him the election and suggested his tough talk on immigration and economic proposals would resonate with them.
“I always thought women liked me,” Trump said in Indiana, Pennsylvania, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. “But the fake news keeps saying women don’t like me.”
Mr. Trump, who was convicted last year of sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and has a history of making degrading remarks about women, has sought to portray himself as an advocate for women, posting similar comments on his social media platform.
“Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free,” he said in an extended speech at the rally.
And then he said, “You won’t think about abortion anymore.”
Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Harris’ campaign, said that “women know better than that.”
“He’s trying to tell us what to think and what we care about,” Chitika said. “We’re going to vote like our lives depend on it this November.”
The former president has often boasted about his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. On Monday night, he repeated that the court’s decision gave states back the power to set their own limits on abortion, a measure he said many Americans had supported for decades.
“Everyone wanted abortion taken out of the federal government and given to the states,” he said.
Mr Trump also repeated a falsehood he amplified during his debate against Ms Harris earlier this month, saying Democrats were calling for abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy or “executing a baby after it’s born”.
According to New York Times/Siena College polls conducted earlier this month, a growing share of voters in key states now believe the issue is central to their decision this fall.
In the 2022 midterm elections, the first political cycle after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion played a key role in many elections. Republicans fell short of their expectations for that year, with the so-called “red wave” failing to materialize.
