During his first term in office, Donald Trump appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices, helping form the majority that in 2022 would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that had guaranteed abortion rights for almost 50 years.

“For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall in January. “And I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.”

But in recent months, the Republican presidential candidate has moderated his views, frustrating some anti-abortion advocates.

He says abortion policy should be left to the states, and emphasizes that he supports exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the health of the mother.

Trump also supports in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and said earlier this month he would veto a national abortion ban, writing on his Truth Social platform: “I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT.”

During the debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last month, Trump said, “I’m not in favor of [an] abortion ban. But it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”

But earlier this year, Trump was openly discussing a national ban. Indeed, his messaging on abortion has been all over the map.

While he’s boasted of his pro-life record, he also claimed in a recent social media post that his administration “will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”

He has suggested without any basis that some states’ strict abortion bans will be rolled back, saying at last week’s all-women Fox News town hall that those bans are “too tough, too tough. And those are going to be redone.”

And he constantly, brazenly lies by saying “everyone” wanted Roe overturned.

“They wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade,” Trump said at an August press conference. “And that’s Democrats, Republicans and independents and everybody.”

Harris has seized on that false claim, drawing attention to the abortion restrictions in place in more than 20 states, some of which make no exceptions for rape or incest.

“A 12- or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don't want that,” she said during the debate.

Harris, a longtime fierce supporter of abortion rights, has made the issue a centerpiece of her campaign. She supports passing federal legislation that would restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, and she supports eliminating the Senate filibuster to do so.

That means instead of a 60-vote threshold, the measure could pass the Senate with a simple majority.

“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government — and Donald Trump, certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” she said at the debate.

Some states, like New York, have expanded abortion protections in the past two years. Proposition 1 on the November ballot would add abortion protections to the state constitution.

But New York would not be immune from a national ban, which Harris continues to raise alarms about, despite Trump disavowing the idea.

IVF, meanwhile, became a flashpoint in February after an Alabama Supreme Court decision effectively blocked access to the popular fertility treatment. Trump backed the Alabama legislature’s subsequent move to protect IVF access.

Now, he’s made an extraordinary proposal: making the treatment free for all Americans.

“The government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to get, or mandate, your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great,” he said at a Wisconsin town hall in August.

Trump has offered no further details. And while polls show more Americans align with Harris’ position on abortion, Trump has tried to paint Democrats as the extremists, making the egregiously false claim that they support infanticide.

“Even execution after birth,” he said in a recorded video in April. “And that’s exactly what it is. The baby is born, the baby is executed after birth.”

That claim has no basis in reality, though a handful of states do permit abortion up until birth.

Harris has sidestepped the question of whether she supports any restrictions on late-term abortions, saying only that she wants a return to Roe, which protected abortion up until fetal viability — generally at about 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.