Donald Trump roe v wade
(Photo : ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump said "We broke Roe v Wade" at a news conference in Arizona on Friday.

In an increasingly muddled message on where he stands on abortion, former President Donald Trump boasted on Friday: "We broke Roe v Wade."

He made the comment at a news conference in Arizona with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

"Nobody thought it was possible. We gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative, in some cases not conservative, but they're working. And it's working the way it's supposed to," said the former president.

Trump has made some attempts to waffle on the issue after the historic Supreme Court ruling and as Republican oppostion to abortion threatens to drive millions of female voters from the GOP in the presidential election. Earlier this month Trump said he would not sign a national abortion ban if he makes it to the White House. 

The Supreme Court, stacked with three justices nominated by Trump, overturned the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion in June 2022. Trump has called the decision a "miracle."

"Every ... real legal scholar wanted to have it go back to the states," Trump said at the news conference, without offering any evidence. "Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative. And we were able to do that ... and now the states are working their way through it."

The issue took on new importance this week when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a statute, dating back to 1864 before Arizona became a state, allows for abortion to be banned, except in cases of incest or when a mother's life is in jeopardy.