Former President Donald Trump faced blowback this week from his Republican presidential rivals over his recent comments to NBC News on abortion, in which he called Florida’s six-week abortion ban a “terrible mistake” and said that he’d be willing to work with both parties on the issue.
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination, drew on Trump’s comments as part of his argument that his former running mate is moving away from conservative principles.
“Just this weekend again, you saw [Trump] walking away from our commitment to the sanctity of human life. I’m pro-life. People that know me know, I’ll always stand for the unborn. He actually said that a Heartbeat Bill adopted in Florida, and in places like Georgia and Ohio and South Carolina, and Iowa was a quote, terrible mistake,” he said of Trump on Fox Business.
He also told Fox News Radio that Trump’s comments “just suggests to me that he is backing away from that cause.”
Pence, who has challenged the GOP field to commit to a 15-week federal ban and is clear about his opposition to abortion, was far from being the only of Trump’s competitors to call out the former president for his comments. The Republican presidential field has been split on the issue of abortion, which particularly has galvanized voters since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year in prior elections.
Trump, for his part, has vacillated on his approach to the polarizing issue. He has said both privately and publicly that he does not believe abortion is a winning political issue, particularly in a general election. During campaign speeches he has often avoided the topic altogether. However, he has repeatedly sought to take credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade after appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court while serving…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply