I think he was inarticulately saying he doesn’t want to throw women in jail, right? I think he just didn’t say what he would do if he were a state official making the decision as to whether to ban abortion or not.

He didn’t give a position on how he’d vote on a state ban in his video for the National Right to Life Committee either:

But then a president shouldn’t be telling the states what do to — and through a spokesman he’s said he would not be for a federal ban — let the states decide, is his position. So I think Thompson just doesn’t want to be an overbearing executive. He wants to say, I’m pro-life, I hate Roe and want it reversed. Then, when Roe is reversed, the states should decide. And so if I were running for governor post-Roe, my view on what Tennessee should do would really matter. But I’m running for president, so you want to know I’m pro-life, I’m against federal funding of embryo-destroying research, partial-birth abortion should be illegal. Etc. ?

I think this week is a good time for one of those commentaries he’s famous for. But I see a debate on federalism coming again.