President Trump has, in our view, adopted a wise strategy in respect of abortion. By acceding to the Supreme Court’s decision to return the matter to the people and the states he has chosen to put his faith in the American federalist system and the democratic debates that have begun and will continue for years to come. These are early days yet in the Dobbs era. Mr. Trump’s position, though, in our view, embraces the logic of the Founders. 

The thing to remember here is that Dobbs was not decided in a day. It was the result of an intense national debate stretching over 50 years. It put paid to a decision that, in Roe, had failed to settle the abortion question on a national level. Justice Samuel Alito’s formulation that the “authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives” is a remit of popular sovereignty against a backdrop of failed judicial imperiousness.   

President Biden in his State of the Union address last month, promised that he would “restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.” In other words, a return trip to the Constitution’s shadows and penumbras rather than open-air debates in the sunlit squares of democracy. This retrograde bent comes even as Mr. Biden’s campaign crows that abortion’s place on the ballot in Florida could make that red redoubt “winnable.”

Mr. Trump’s adoption of Dobbs was met by disapproval from not only the pro-choice left but also the pro-life right. The president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, writes in a statement that “We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position” and that “saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats.” In our view it delivers power to the American voter.

Mr. Trump said as much on Monday, declaring that the “states will determine by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land — in this case, the law of the state.” That can hardly be improved upon as a lesson in what Chief Justice Rehnquist called “our federalism.” Mr. Trump adds that “Many states will be different … at the end of the day it is all about the will of the people.” 

One of the things to mark at this moment is that Mr. Trump has put the Democrats on the defensive and painted them with the brush of extremism. The presumptive Republican nominee is prepared to let states permit abortions — even late term — if they can gain a democratic mandate. What he marks — which he took to X to write — is the injunction to  “ALWAYS REMEMBER — THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE RADICAL ON ABORTION.” 

The devolution of the abortion question to the states, per Dobbs, does not mean that the work of persuasion is at an end. It is just beginning, and Mr. Trump is prepared to play a role. He can begin with making the case in Florida, where abortion will be on the ballot, and then barnstorm it elsewhere. He has enough humility to abide by a decision of those whom Dobbs has empowered, the American people.