Donald Trump's position on abortion is not as unpopular as you might think, according to an exclusive poll for Newsweek which shows 40 percent of voters agree with the former president on the issue.

The survey conducted for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in February shows that 40 percent of voters agree with Trump that abortion rights should be left to individual state governments. Comparably, 40 percent said the federal government should determine abortion laws and 20 percent said they didn't know which level of government it should be decided by.

Abortion is arguably the most divisive issue in US politics and with a Supreme Court seat now vacant, the stakes have never been higher.

With President Trump in the White House, and following the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, anti-abortion activists are energised.

Republican-controlled states have tightened restrictions on abortion in recent years.

And there is a brewing political battle over whether Mr Trump should seek to fill the Supreme Court vacancy with a conservative judge prior to the 3 November election.

Donald Trump does not speak from conviction. He does not speak from belief or at least any belief other than self-obsession. He certainly does not speak from anything we might recognize as reason; when he’s holding forth at a microphone, even the most careful students of Trump the rhetorician will struggle to find the light of complex thought.

In a video statement outlining his position on abortion, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe v. Wade “be ended.” Legal scholars told us that was “utter nonsense” and “patently absurd.”

Arizona’s highest court on Tuesday upheld an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions, a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for women’s health care and election-year politics in a critical battleground state.

The 1864 law, the court said in a 4-to-2 decision, “is now enforceable.” But the court put its ruling on hold for the moment, and sent the matter back to a lower court to hear additional arguments about the law’s constitutionality.

Two justices on the Arizona Supreme Court called out the "bombshell" in their colleagues' historic abortion ruling.

In a 4-2 decision, the state's high court upheld an 1864 law on Tuesday, which was codified in 1901, allowing a near-total abortion ban to go into effect in Arizona. Under the 123-year-old law, all procedures are barred except in cases when "it is necessary to save" the life of the mother. The ruling will further restrict abortion in Arizona, where a 15-week ban was already in place.

President Joe Biden condemned the Arizona Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday that upheld an 1864 law banning most abortions in the state.

The law only makes exceptions for abortions in which the mother faces immediate life-threatening conditions while mandating a prison sentence of between two and five years for a healthcare provider who performs the procedure unlawfully.

As president, Trump delivered for anti-abortion voters in the biggest way possible by appointing the three Supreme Court justices who cast the deciding votes to overturn Roe v. Wade.

This year, however, the man who once proudly proclaimed himself “the most pro-life president in American history” has been wishy-washy on the subject as he campaigns, no doubt aware that pro-abortion-rights candidates and measures have been consistently winning since Roe fell.

On Monday, Donald Trump delivered a clear message to anti-abortion conservatives: The party’s over. Don’t count on getting anything else from me.

Truth be told, the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade was a big deal, and Trump is still claiming credit for getting it done. But overturning Roe did not make abortion go away; the Dobbs v. Jackson decision sent the abortion issue back to the states. And on Monday, Trump made it clear that, if he has anything to say about it, that’s where the issue will stay.

First, the good news: Donald Trump’s Monday-morning statement on abortion reminded pro-lifers that he could turn up the rhetorical heat on Democrats on these issues, as he did in 2016 debates.