On the campaign trail in Michigan yesterday, GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence pledged that he and Donald Trump will see the end of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that imposed abortion-on-demand on the 50 states.
Speaking to a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Pence said, “I’m pro-life and I don’t apologize for it. We’ll see Roe vs. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs.”
Pence went on to promise that Trump will appoint strict constitutionalists similar to the recently deceased Antonin Scalia.
Pence told the town-hall crowd, “While we’re choosing a president for the next four years, this next president will make decisions that will impact our Supreme Court for the next 40. Go tell your neighbors and your friends, for the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of sanctity of life, for the sake of our 2nd Amendment, for the sake of all our other God-given liberties, we must ensure the next president appointing justices to the Supreme Court is Donald Trump.”
Trump has promised to appoint conservative Justices similar to those he presented this spring from a list his staff prepared under guidance from the Federalist Society, a group Trump referred to as the “gold standard,” and the Heritage Foundation. The judges on the list received uniformly high marks from conservative groups concerned about civil rights related to the Second Amendment and those who are fighting to protect the unborn child from abortion.
Trump has also promised to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood that receives more than half a billion dollars in government funds each year.
Pence was chosen by Trump for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his pro-life bona fides. Pence recently signed a bill making it illegal to abort an unborn child based on sex or race. The law also forbids abortion based on disability. Roughly 90% of unborn children diagnosed in utero as suffering from Down Syndrome are aborted. Pence considers abortions based on race, sex, and disability a form of discrimination. Abortion advocates have called such bans on discrimination “bonkers.”
Some social conservatives have questioned Donald Trump’s commitment to the life issue given that he has expressed pro-abortion views in the past. Trump contends he has had a change of heart, similar to the change of heart that conservatives accepted in Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan.