• Trump: “For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I'm proud to have done it.” At Fox News’ January 10 Iowa town hall event with the former president, an audience member said to Trump, “I'd like for you to reassure me that you can protect all life, every person's right to life, without compromise.” Trump initially responded: “So, that is a great question. I appreciate it, too. You wouldn't be asking that question, even talking about the issue, because for 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I'm proud to have done it.” [Fox News, Democracy 2024: Iowa Town Hall with Former President Donald Trump, 1/10/24]
• Trump then said, “I happen to be for the exceptions” because “you have to win elections. … You got to win elections.” Trump also admitted that six-week abortion bans are a problem because “if you talk five or six weeks, a lot of women don't know if they are pregnant in five or six weeks,” again emphasizing that “we still have to win elections.” [Fox News, Democracy 2024: Iowa Town Hall with Former President Donald Trump, 1/10/24]
• Axios: “In the 11 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have underperformed in federal, judicial, statewide and local elections across the country.” [Axios, 5/17/23]
• Reuters: “Every statewide ballot question about reproductive rights since 2022 - seven in all - has yielded victory for abortion rights advocates, including in conservative states such as Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky.” Reuters’ article further noted, “Republican presidential candidates, including frontrunner Donald Trump, have struggled to articulate a position on abortion that would satisfy both the evangelical Christians who comprise a critical Republican voting bloc as well as the swing voters who prefer abortion remain accessible.” [Reuters, 12/14/23]

• ABC News covered Trump’s abortion comments for 25 seconds in one report. On the January 11 edition of ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott reported on Trump’s abortion comments from the Fox town hall for less than half a minute.
• CBS News and NBC News failed to cover Trump’s abortion comments on their news programming.
• The New York Times reported on Trump’s abortion comments in two articles. One of the Times articles included informative context of Trump’s shifting positions on abortion rights over time and how the issue is currently harming Republicans in elections. [The New York Times, 1/11/24, 1/11/24]
• The Washington Post briefly mentioned Trump’s abortion comments in just one sentence. The January 11 article noted that Trump “took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, but he reiterated his support for exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.” [The Washington Post, 1/11/24]
• The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times failed to cover Trump’s abortion comments in their news reporting.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight, CBS’ Mornings and Evening News, and NBC’s Today and Nightly News for any of the terms “Trump,” “former president,” or “then president” within close proximity of any of the terms “abortion,” “roe,” “wade,” or “win elections” from January 11, 2024, the day after Trump talked about abortion at a Fox News town hall event, through January 12, 2024.

We also searched print news articles in the Factiva and Nexis databases from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Trump,” “former president,” or “then president” within the same articles as any of the terms “abortion,” “roe,” “wade,” or “win elections” from January 11, 2024, through January 12, 2024.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Trump's abortion comments at the Fox News town hall were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the comments. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the comments with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker mentioned the comments without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the comments scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We also included print news articles, which we defined as instances when Trump's abortion comments were mentioned anywhere in text in the A section of the paper. We did not include editorial, op-eds, or letters-to-the-editor.