Mike Pence Says Stripping Women of Rights More Important Than Midterm Gains
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Former Vice President Mike Pence says he believes implementing a national abortion ban and continuing the conservative fight to restrict bodily autonomy for women “is profoundly more important than any short-term politics.”
The comments came in an interview with RealClearPolitics, during which Pence urged his fellow Republicans not to “shrink from the fight” after some GOP legislators distanced themselves from an effort by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to implement a national abortion ban. Some Republicans are wary that a push for a federal ban could galvenize pro-choice voters in the Novemeber midterms and cost them highly coveted legislative seats.
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When asked on Tuesday if he would bring Graham’s measure to the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level.”
Republican lawmakers have been disingenuously framing abortion as a “states rights” issue in order to mitigate the backlash to the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, but the effort to implement a federal abortion ban has been in the works since far before the Dobbs decision in June.
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Though Graham said abortion should be left up to the states as recently as last month, Pence has been consistent in calling for a national ban. Hours after the Supreme Court handed down their decision to strike down federal abortion rights, Pence tweeted that “we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
On Tuesday night, Pence attended a secret, press-free gala hosted by the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America foundation celebrating the end of Roe. Attendees allegedly also included Graham, Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin, Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), , Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and former President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“Because you never gave up, never stopped loving, never stopped praying, on June 24th Life Won when the Supreme Court sent Roe v Wade to the ash heap of history and gave the American people a new beginning for Life!” Pence tweeted along with some pictures of the event.
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