‘That’s the reality’: Marco Rubio backs Donald Trump plan to nix abortion ban from GOP platform

Marco Rubio wants to be Donald Trump’s VP but does not want to seem too eager.

Marco Rubio says he’s fine with Donald Trump removing a long-standing plan to impose a national abortion ban from the GOP platform.

Under the position Trump is proposing, which could become official when the former President is confirmed as the party’s nominee at next week’s Republican National Convention, the party would defer abortion-related decisions to the states.

Several conservative groups oppose the arrangement. But according to Rubio, it’s the only realistic path forward following the Supreme Court’s seismic 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“Our platform has to reflect our nominee, and our nominee’s position happens to be one grounded in reality,” Rubio told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

“It’s not state (but) voters at individual states who will get to decide how and to what level they want to restrict abortion, if at all. Some states will have restrictions. Some states will not.”

Asked whether he was concerned that removing a federal abortion ban from the GOP platform would depress enthusiasm for Trump among core anti-abortion grassroots donors — something the Susan B. Anthony Foundation suggested may happen — Rubio, a top contender for Vice President, said “not really.”

“Because I don’t think that there’s much of an option here. It looks like no matter who the democrats nominate — it looks like maybe Kamala Harris would be the most liberal presidential candidate in American history or a continuation of whoever’s running the White House now with Joe Biden as its figurehead — the issue is that they are going to be radical,” he said.

“There’s only one pro-life candidate in this race, and it’s Donald Trump. And I think his position on this has been that … reality, which is you can’t pass a federal law now even if we wanted to.”

He added, “All the Supreme Court ruled was that this was a political issue … that now voters would be able to decide via the people they voted for or voted against at the state level, and that’s the reality.”

Rubio said the Democrats’ official position on abortion is that the procedure would be “paid for by taxpayers at any time without any restrictions … up until the moment of birth.” Bash responded, “I’m not sure that’s entirely true,” to which Rubio shot back, “Oh, it is.”

An archive of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform by The American Presidency Project shows that the party opposed restrictions on abortions “inconsistent with the most recent medical and scientific evidence” and supported restoring federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

There is no mention in the platform of how late into a pregnancy the party would support abortion procedures.