Mike Pence Challenges GOP Primary Competitors to Back Abortion Ban at 15 Weeks

Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence challenged his primary opponents to support a national ban on aboriton after 15 weeks of pregnancy while speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Washington, DC, on Friday morning.

Pence highlighted that the three-day event coincides with Saturday’s one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the longstanding Roe v. Wade decision, making abortion an issue for states to decide:

I stand before you today with a grateful heart. After nearly 50 years of lost lives, and broken hearts, 50 years of praying and fasting and marching and hoping, one year ago tomorrow we will mark the first anniversary of the day that a conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States sent Roe vs. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs.

Pence said it was a “privilege… to play some small role in the administration that appointed” Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barret, who were key votes in overturning the 1973 ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation case.

He also  shared his view that “the battle for life is far from over,” with the overturning of Roe adding, “We’ve simply come to the end of the beginning.” Pence then noted some conservatives take softer approaches on the issue of abortion before contending the fight for life is “the calling of our time” and unveiling his challenge to his rivals:

Some you will hear from people at this very podium will say that the Supreme Court returned to the issue of abortion only to the states and nothing should be done at the federal level. Others will say that continuing the fight to life could produce state legislation that’s too harsh. Some have even gone on to blame, the overturning of Roe vs Wade for election losses in 2022. Well, let me say from my heart, the cause of life is the calling of our time and we must not rest and must not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in this country…

…We must support efforts in state houses across the country to protect the unborn and support women facing crisis pregnancies with new and renewed resources. And literally with nearly every nation in Europe, limiting abortion to 12 to 15 weeks, the fact is today abortion law in the United States is more aligned with China and North Korea than with Western nations in Europe. So I want to say from my heart, every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard.

Pence added that more regarding his 15-week abortion challenge is to come “in the days ahead. “

Speaking with Breitbart News after his campaign launch in Ankey, Iowa, earlier this month, Pence said he would sign a 15-week aboriton ban, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed last year, “without hesitation.”

In addition to serving in the Trump administration for the appointment of the three judges crucial to the vote, then-Vice President Pence was also the tie-breaking vote in the Senate that enabled states to defund Planned Parenthood. Moreover, he noted that during his time as the Hoosier State’s governor, Republicans “advanced right-to-life protections and adoption reform.”