By Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has privately expressed support for a 16-week national abortion ban, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or risk to a mother’s life, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing two sources.

The Trump campaign issued a statement in response to what it called a “fake” article.

“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,” the statement said, without providing any detail on what such a deal would look like.

Trump has tried to have it both ways on the abortion issue, taking credit for delivering the Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, which recognized a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, while criticizing some Republican-led states’ six-week abortion bans as “a terrible mistake.”

He has also blamed the issue for Republican electoral losses since the June 2022 ruling.

Trump has remained vague publicly on his own stance but has so far refused to endorse a national ban, although some of his erstwhile rivals for the Republican nomination did.

The Times reported that Trump did not want to air his views publicly yet to avoid turning off conservatives who favor stricter or full bans before he has formally clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

Republicans have been grappling with how to turn out their culturally conservative base in what is expected to be a close contest in November with Democratic President Joe Biden without putting off the independents and suburban women who opinion polls show oppose sweeping abortion restrictions.

Trump is expected to win the Republican nomination, but his only remaining rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, has refused to drop out.

Republican strategist David Kochel said there was “no upside” in Trump making the campaign a referendum on abortion.

“I think any time we’re talking about abortion instead of the border and the economy, we’re losing,” Kochel said.

Republicans’ long campaign to end abortion rights has become a liability ahead of the 2024 elections, strategists from both parties have said.

Biden is trying to put abortion rights front and center in 2024, arguing that abortion access is a personal freedom that Trump and Republicans are denying women.

His campaign quickly issued a statement on Friday criticizing Trump’s purported policy proposal.

“Donald Trump is running to rip away your rights,” the statement said. “Does anyone doubt Trump has already cut a deal in private to ban abortion nationwide to get elected in 2024?”

Anti-abortion advocates, with the backing of Christian evangelical groups, argue that abortion ends the life of a human being and that stricter limits are needed at the state and national level.

Republicans have issued restrictive abortion laws in nearly two dozen states since the Supreme Court reversal of abortion rights.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer, additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)