- Donald Trump said the victory for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade belongs to "God."
- The former president offered a much more muted praise of the court's decision than Mike Pence.
- Trump's three appointees to the high court were instrumental in the landmark decision.
Former President Donald Trump on Friday praised the Supreme Court for overturning a federal right to an abortion, a conservative victory that was pushed over the top by his picks for the high court.
"This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago," Trump told Fox News.
Trump offered a much more muted response than his former vice president, Mike Pence, who celebrated the landmark ruling that was decades in the making. Pence also took the decision as an opportunity to call for a nationwide abortion ban as opposed to allowing each state to decide what to do.
The pair's differences aren't surprising given that Pence has long discussed his deeply-held Christian views versus Trump who has admitted that he once was in favor of abortion rights. They do underline how two potentially leading 2024 presidential candidates are responding to news that will be closely followed by Republican activists.
"God made the decision," Trump told Fox News after the Supreme Court ruling was handed down.
"I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody," he added.
Privately, however, Trump has said that overturning Roe would be "bad for Republicans," according to The New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Michael C. Bender.
Trump's response demonstrates how he tried to play both sides of the debate after making an explicit campaign promise that he would only name justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
In 2020, Trump told "Fox & Friends" that it was "certainly possible" then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett would vote to overturn Roe, but he added, we "just don't know what's going to happen." Barrett, the final of Trump's picks, became the fifth and decisive vote in overturning Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. She was joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's other two picks.
The court ruled 6-3 that Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy could stand. But Chief Justice John Roberts made it clear he did not agree with the decision to issue a sweeping ruling that overturned the court's precedents.