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\nPHOTO: Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to reporters after his remarks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., Sep. 15, 2023.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s former vice president, Mike Pence, is calling Trump\u2019s latest statement on his abortion policies \u201ca slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life. Republicans win on life when we speak the truth boldly and stand on the principle that we all know to be true \u2013 human life begins at conception and should be defended from womb to tomb,\u201d Pence wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n
Pence has long been to the right of Trumpon the issue of reproductive rights.<\/p>\n
During his unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign, he advocated for a 15-week abortion ban as a \u201cminimum nationwide standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his statement on X, Pence \u2014 like Trump has \u2014 touted his role in the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade\u2019s national protections for abortion access.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs and gave the pro-life movement the opportunity to compassionately support women and unborn children,\u201d Pence wrote.<\/p>\n
Marc Short, Pence\u2019s former chief of staff, also came out with a blistering statement rebuking Trump\u2019s stance, pushing for the former president to \u201cacknowledge life begins at conception.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short argued that Trump had made his announcement because of \u201ca political calculation that tries to avoid confronting the fundamental evil of\u201d abortion and \u201ccontinues the former president\u2019s drift away from the conservative achievements of his own Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPHOTO: Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to reporters after his remarks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., Sep. 15, 2023.<\/p>\n
In a video statement on Monday, Trump, after months of dodging questions about his abortion position, rejected calls to endorse a national abortion ban, saying he believes it should be a states\u2019 rights issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land in this case, the law of the state,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Do what\u2019s right for your family and do what\u2019s right for yourself. Do what\u2019s right for your children, do what\u2019s right for our country and vote. So important to vote. At the end of the day, it\u2019s all about the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Trump\u2019s position did not address some of the key questions that have come to define the debate over abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overruled in 2022.<\/p>\n
Trump did not say if he personally favors a certain number of weeks into pregnancy at which state-level bans should take effect, he did not say how he will vote on an upcoming ballot measure in his home state of Florida which would broaden abortion access there and though he specifically criticized that abortion policy had been decided at the federal level under Roe, he did not say what he would do as president if a nationwide ban passes Congress and makes it to his desk to be signed into law.<\/p>\n
Trump also did not address his views on abortion medication, the use of which is currently being challenged before the Supreme Court by a group of anti-abortion doctors, and though he reiterated his support for three exceptions to abortion bans \u2014 in the cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman \u2014 he was not more specific on how those exceptions should be implemented.<\/p>\n
His campaign did not respond to follow-up questions from ABC News.<\/p>\n
He suggested in his latest statement that his views on abortion were tied to political concerns \u2014 something he has said before while boasting that he could find an electorally viable compromise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both sides are going to like me,\u201d he said in September in an interview with NBC News.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject,\u201d he said then.<\/p>\n
PM
\n\u201cOther than certain parts of the country, you can\u2019t \u2014 you\u2019re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks,\u201d he told NBC News.<\/p>\n
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\nPHOTO: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 2, 2024.<\/p>\n
Republican presidential candidate former Pre\u2026Show more
\nPaul Sancya\/AP
\nTrump echoed that on Monday: \u201cMany states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks [for their ban] or some will have more conservative than others, and that\u2019s what they will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican thought to be among Trump\u2019s potential running mate choices, agreed with him in a social media post of her own.<\/p>\n
And the conservative public policy organization Concerned Women for America said in a statement from its CEO that the 2024 election is a \u201cstark choice\u201d between Trump\u2019s opposition to abortion and Biden.<\/p>\n
Other conservatives split from Trump.<\/p>\n
Sen. Lindsey Graham released a statement saying he \u201crespectfully disagrees\u201d with Trump\u2019s position, a rare defection for the staunch Trump ally.<\/p>\n
Graham has long advocated for a nationwide 15-week abortion ban and he said he will continue to advocate for such restrictions.<\/p>\n
Trump responded to Graham with characteristic bluntness, saying that Graham is \u201cdoing a great disservice to the Republican Party, and to our Country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats, Trump said, \u201clove this Issue [abortion], and they want to keep it going for as long as Republicans will allow them to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
More broadly, Trump maintained on social media that sending the abortion discussion back to the states was the \u201cpolicy of the Republican Party and Conservatives for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the leading anti-abortion rights groups in the country separately said it was \u201cdeeply disappointed in President Trump\u2019s position\u201d about deferring to individual states.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. \u2026 Saying the issue is \u2018back to the states\u2019 cedes the national debate to the Democrats,\u201d Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement to ABC News.<\/p>\n
Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly known as NARAL) reacted to Trump\u2019s statement on abortion by claiming that the former president had \u201cdeployed dangerous disinformation about abortion in order to distract from the truth about what he will do if elected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group insisted that despite what Trump said on Monday, he \u201cwill work to ban all abortion nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden, Trump\u2019s rival in the upcoming election, contended in his own statement that Trump was now \u201cscrambling\u201d to shore up support by being ambiguous on his true stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet there be no illusion. If Donald Trump is elected and the MAGA Republicans in Congress put a national abortion ban on the Resolute Desk, Trump will sign it into law,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n
He followed up later on Monday with another reaction to Trump\u2019s views on abortion, saying in part that \u201cDonald Trump just endorsed every single state ban on reproductive care nationwide. \u2026 Donald Trump is the reason Roe has ended. If you reelect me, I\u2019ll be the reason why it\u2019s restored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trump\u2019s former vice president, Mike Pence, is calling Trump\u2019s latest statement on his abortion policies \u201ca slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.\u201d \u201cToday, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life. Republicans win on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8531,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528\/revisions\/8531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}