Former Vice President Mike Pence slammed former President Donald Trump’s position on a national abortion ban as a “slap in the face.”
Pence issued a statement on X, criticizing Trump’s announcement that he did not support a federal ban on abortion.
“President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020,” Pence wrote in his statement:
By 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.
President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020. By nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the…
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) April 8, 2024
“But today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life,” Pence continued. “However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country.”
Pence’s statement came hours after Trump announced in a video posted to Truth Social on Monday that the decision of abortion would be left up to the states to “determine by vote or legislation.”
In his video, Trump highlighted how he had been “responsible for the ending” of Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court nominations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh, who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“My view is: Now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” Trump said in his video, adding that “many states” would differ in their laws and positions on abortion.
“At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” Trump added. “You must follow your heart, or in many cases, your religion or your faith.”
“Do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself. Do what’s right for your children. Do what’s right for our country, and vote — so important to vote.”
Trump continued in his video to thank Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, and Gorsuch — along with other Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and John Roberts — for being “incredible people” who had the “courage to allow” the “50-year battle over Roe v. Wade” to end.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- SC) also responded to Trump’s video in a post on X, saying that he “respectfully” disagreed that abortion was a “states’ rights issue.”
“Dobbs does not require that conclusion legally and the pro-life movement has always been about the wellbeing of the unborn child – not geography,” Graham wrote in his post.
In response to Graham’s statement, Trump wrote in another post on Truth Social that the South Carolina senator “should spend more time focusing on all of the many people being killed because of our now non-existent Border, and the millions of people dying in senseless, never-ending Wars.”
Trump added that the Democrats are “thrilled with Lindsey” because they want the issue of abortion to “simmer for as long a period of time as possible.”
Months after Roe v. Wade had been overturned, Graham introduced a 15-week Pain-Capable Abortion Act that would ban abortions from being conducted after 15 weeks, when unborn children are able to feel pain.
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