Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday defended his call for his fellow Republican presidential candidates to support a 15-week nationwide abortion ban.
“I believe we simply cannot rest or give in until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law,” Pence said in an interview with host Shannon Bream that aired on Fox News Sunday.
Pence had called for the national standard at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, a gathering of evangelicals in Washington. “Every Republican presidential candidate should support banning abortion before 15 weeks as the minimum national standard,” he said Friday.
The former vice president said he believes abortion is “a winning issue” for GOP candidates in 2024, regardless of polls that have indicated opposition to nationwide bans. The judgment of 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization essentially returned abortion control to the states, and many, but not all, took the opportunity last year to enact legislation to restrict abortion.
“I think we need to bring a message of grace,” Pence said of Republicans. “We need to bring a message of caring. We need to support women in crisis. That’s how we’re going to win hearts and minds.”
Pence also backed the stranglehold Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has placed on hundreds of military promotions to oppose a Department of Defense policy on abortion. “This indefinite suspension harms the national security of the United States and impedes the normal operations of the Pentagon,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last month.
Pence said he supported Tuberville. “I strongly support the position taken by Senator Tuberville,” he said.