Despite their unpopularity with the American public, former Republican vice-president and 2024 White House hopeful Mike Pence doubled down Sunday on his hard-line support of staunch abortion restrictions, saying: \u201cWe just can\u2019t rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pence \u2013 in an interview on Fox News Sunday \u2013 made clear that he viewed bringing the elimination of abortion \u201cto the center of American law\u201d as both essential and \u201ca winning issue\u201d for the Republican party trying to wrest back control of the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m pro-life, and I don\u2019t apologize for it,\u201d Pence boasted to host Shannon Bream, even though polling shows most Americans favor keeping the termination of pregnancies legal in most cases.
The Dobbs v Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization ruling that the US supreme court handed down one year ago Saturday in effect left it up to states to decide whether abortion should be legal within their boundaries. Many states have taken steps to severely limit access to abortion, setting off a seismic shift in how doctors are training to provide reproductive care to how far patients in need of attention must travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pence on Sunday hailed the Dobbs decision as \u201ca historic victory\u201d which sent the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling establishing federal abortion rights \u201cto the ash heap of history\u201d. But he also suggested it didn\u2019t go far enough and reiterated a call he had publicly made days earlier for his fellow Republicans to rally behind setting \u201ca minimum standard\u201d and implementing a nationwide ban on abortions beyond 15 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former US congressman, Indiana governor, and vice-president to Donald Trump argued that failing to do so would leave the nation more closely aligned with \u201cwestern countries in Europe\u201d on the topic of abortion than with North Korea, China and Iran. \u201cI fully support that,\u201d said Pence, a professed evangelical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pence\u2019s beliefs on abortion put him at stark odds with Trump, who has signaled that he regards a national abortion ban as a vote-loser which he is unlikely to support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the other declared candidates for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic presidential incumbent Joe Biden\u2019s re-election campaign have been less frank about their positions on abortion.
Notably, Florida governor Ron DeSantis \u2013 the closest challenger to the frontrunner Trump \u2013 signed a six-week ban in his state, which pundits predict could be a problem for him in a general showdown with Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s administration has taken steps to widen access to abortion, and promises to defend such procedures helped Democrats keep a majority in the Senate as well as lose fewer House seats than projected during last year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pence on Sunday also evaded answering whether he would consider pardoning Trump if he won the 2024 presidency and his ex-boss was convicted of criminal charges pending against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why the other people running for president in the Republican primary assume that the president will be found guilty,\u201d Pence said when asked if he would pardon Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump is facing federal charges that he improperly stored government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he and Pence were defeated by the Biden-Kamala Harris ticket in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Separately, he is also facing state charges in New York over hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels after a sexual encounter that she has described having with Trump. Presidential pardons would not apply to state charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ex-president has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s presidency ended with his supporters attacking the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and demanding \u2013 among other things \u2013 Pence\u2019s execution by hanging. At the time of the attack, the pro-mob Trump incorrectly maintained that Pence could have used his ceremonial role at a joint session of Congress certifying the results of the 2020 election to single-handedly undermine Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n