Former President Donald Trump said in a Fox News town hall that aired Wednesday that some states have been “too tough” with abortion restrictions and predicted some would “redo” their laws.

The Republican presidential nominee made the comments, recorded a day earlier, while answering questions from an overwhelmingly friendly, all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia.

One audience member, though, said she believed “women are entitled to do what they want to and need to do with their bodies, including their unborn.” She asked Trump, “Why is the government involved in women's basic rights?”

Trump, who nominated three of the six justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, repeated a false claim that “everybody” — “the Democrats, the Republicans, the liberals, the conservatives” — wanted the issue of abortion to be decided individually by states. For years before Roe was struck down, Democrats fought Republican efforts to restrict abortion rights and immediately decried the Supreme Court’s decision when it was leaked in the press.

“The states are now voting for it,” Trump said. “And honestly, some of them are going much more liberal.”

Host Harris Faulkner interrupted to say, “Some of them are not.”

“Some are not,” Trump acknowledged, adding, “but it's going to be redone.”

“You end up with a vote of the people, and some of them, I agree, they're too tough, too tough,” he said. “And those are going to be redone because already there's a movement in those states … to redo it.”

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research and policy organization, 27 states now have abortion laws that it classifies as the most restrictive, very restrictive or restrictive.

As polls and public referendums have shown most Americans support access to abortion, Trump has softened his tone on the issue during his third presidential run. In the past, he has said he believes there should be “some form of punishment” for women who illegally get an abortion, expressed support for a federal 20-week abortion ban and said he was proud of his role in the fall of Roe v. Wade.

But when asked about abortion today, Trump says he defers to the states to set their laws, adding that he supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, which he reiterated in the town hall. In recent weeks, he has vowed to be a “protector” of women.

Trump also was asked about the future in vitro fertilization, with one audience member saying she has friends who struggle with fertility issues that worry abortion bans will affect IVF and other fertility treatments.

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law and that someone could be held liable for destroying them, prompting fertility clinics to pause IVF treatments. 

Soon after, the Alabama Legislature passed a law granting clinics and health care workers criminal and civil immunity, restoring IVF treatments in the state. But Democrats say they’re concerned other states may seek IVF bans, which Trump and other high-profile Republicans have insisted they have no intention of pursuing.

In the town hall, the former president called himself “the father of IVF” in voicing his support for the procedure.

He explained that when the Alabama Supreme Court ruling was made, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., called him to say friends of hers were angry about the decision. 

Trump said he asked Britt to “explain IVF very quickly” to him and that “within about two minutes, I understood it.” 

“I said, ‘No, no, we’re totally in favor of IVF,’” Trump said he told Britt.

The former president said he then issued a statement “within an hour” voicing his support for the procedure.

“We really are the party for IVF,” Trump said. “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way. And the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF even more than them.”

Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris later Wednesday responded directly to Trump calling himself the "father of IVF," calling it a "bizarre" claim.

"If what he meant is taking responsibility for it, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a 'Trump abortion ban' state," the vice president said, referring to states that enacted abortion restrictions after Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago.

"What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk," Harris told reporters. "What he should take responsibility for is what we've been seeing across the country since he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court and they undid the protections of Roe v. Wade. What he should take responsibility for is that he's been trying to take away protections against pre-existing conditions for, for example, women who are survivors of breast cancer."

"Let's not be distracted by his choice of words," she added. "The reality is his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America on this issue

The Harris campaign on Tuesday held a press call ahead of Trump’s town hall that included the family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died in August 2022 after allegedly being denied an emergency abortion for 20 hours. 

“Initially, I wasn’t a political person. I’m independent,” Shanette Williams, Thurman’s mother, said. “But because of August the 19th, we’ve been thrown into an arena where we have to do something to honor Amber.”

Added Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.,“You need to vote like your life depends on it. It does.”

Spectrum News' Maddie Gannon contributed to this report.