Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley on Tuesday said if elected president in 2024 she will work to forge a “national consensus” on the thorny issue of abortion in the hopes of saving more lives and supporting more women.
Ms. Haley said pro-life Republicans and activists must come to grips with the reality they do not have the numbers in Washington they would need to pass strict limits on abortions.
“We have to face this reality: the pro-life laws that have passed in strongly Republican states will not be approved at the federal level,” Ms. Haley said at the headquarters of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List in Virginia. “That is just a fact.”
But there is more that pro-life lawmakers in Washington can and should do, she said, to save “as many lives as possible.”
A former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, Ms. Haley said consensus is within reach on other abortion-related fronts, including around the idea that babies born during botched abortions should be saved and that moms should never be pressured into having abortions.
Ms. Haley said moms should instead get support to carry their babies to term. She said the adoption system should be strengthened, and said pro-life doctors and nurses should not be forced to perform abortions. She said late-term abortions should be outlawed.
“We should be able to agree that contraception should be more available, not less, and we can all agree that women that get abortions should not get jailed,” she said. “A few have even called for the death penalty — that is the least pro-life position I can possibly imagine.”
She blamed the news media for making the debate more volatile and called on pro-life advocates to not buy into the outrage.
Republicans are wrestling with how best to support the pro-life cause following the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that made abortion a constitutional right.
The issue has been front and center in the early jockeying for position in the 2024 Republican presidential race.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is expected to enter the race as early as next month, recently scored points with pro-lifers after he signed a six-week abortion ban into law.
Asked about the Florida law, former President Donald Trump’s campaign said he believes states should decide the issue of abortions — a position that has drawn criticism from some pro-life advocates.
Mr. Trump tried to smooth things over at the Iowa Faith and Freedom event over the weekend, saying he paved the way for the end of Roe by nominating three conservative justices now serving on the Supreme Court.
“Those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life. Nobody thought it was going to happen,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump’s contention that abortion limits should be decided by the states and not the federal government was dismissed as a “morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate” by the Susan B. Anthony group.
Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, introduced Ms. Haley Tuesday, saying her group is keeping tabs on where the GOP presidential contenders stand on the issue.
“This same moment demands powerful national leadership on the most fundamental right each of us has — the right to live,” she said. “At a time the courts have given back our voices through elected representatives and bring our laws in line with the rest of the civilized world, many can’t seem to find their voices.”
Ms. Dannenfelser said Ms. Haley is a leader who has chosen to “go toward the issue and not to run away.”
The lingering political question is whether leaning into the emotional issue of abortion hurts more than helps GOP candidates running in competitive districts and battleground states.
Democrats believe they are on the right side of the issue.
President Biden raised the issue in the campaign launch video he released Tuesday, flashing an image of an activist holding an “abortion is healthcare” sign and warning that “MAGA extremists” in the Republican Party are “dictating what health care decisions women can make.”
Mr. Trump, Ms. Haley and the GOP field of contenders, meanwhile, will need the support of pro-life voters to win the GOP primary.
Pro-life advocates have been on the losing end of a series of post-Roe battles.
The first test came in Kansas when voters shot down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have said there was no right to an abortion in the state. The most recent test came in Wisconsin, where a pro-choice liberal candidate for the state Supreme Court won in a landslide fashion, flipping the court’s ideological makeup.
Exit polls from the 2022 midterms, meanwhile, showed close to 60% of voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 36% who said it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Gallup tracking polls, meanwhile, show that since 1976 the percentage of people who support abortion being legal in all cases has climbed to 35% from 22% and the number of people who believe abortion should be illegal in all cases has sunk to 13% from 21%.
Those that support abortion being legal only under certain circumstances has been less volatile, dipping to 50% from 54%.
Source:Washington Times
