TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former Vice President Mike Pence shared his vision for a post-Roe America on Thursday evening, supporting efforts to further limit abortion rights, even as many in the Republican Party are running away from the issue in the final stretch of the midterm elections.
“Our work must also go far beyond simply working to make abortion illegal,” Mr. Pence said to a banquet hall of about 1,200 people. “We must continue to work to make it unthinkable, changing hearts and minds.”
Mr. Pence, who has made abortion a centerpiece of his political platform since his days as a congressman from Indiana, was speaking at a fund-raiser for a crisis pregnancy center. Such centers, supported by anti-abortion activists, do not refer clients for abortion but rather encourage adoption or parenting.
Mr. Pence’s call to make abortion “unthinkable” is language often used by people who ultimately want the procedure to be banned from conception, with few exceptions. He has said that abortion ought to be outlawed in every state. Mr. Pence, who appears to be weighing a possible run for president in 2024, is leaning into the rightward edge of anti-abortion activism, hoping to become the standard-bearer for a movement now facing new obstacles from within its own ranks.
His elevation of the anti-abortion cause comes as other leaders in the party view the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as politically toxic to Republicans. Privately they’ve highlighted the unpopularity of the decision to overturn federal abortion rights among crucial independent voters. Others have urged their candidates to focus on other issues, like inflation and crime, and to avoid detailed questions about their opposition to abortion rights.
But Mr. Pence’s remarks reflect the views of the powerful, socially conservative wing of the party, which sees the June decision as politically expedient and just the beginning of its ambitions to change abortion law nationwide.
It was the latest in a series of similar addresses he has given for conservative groups across the country that oppose abortion, including appearances at fund-raisers for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Concerned Women for America in Washington.
In his comments, Mr. Pence used other language of the movement, suggesting that fetuses should have rights as people — a legal fight that many consider the next frontier in the clash over reproductive rights.
“Under Roe, unborn children were segregated into a caste of second-class citizens, devoid of the most basic human rights,” Mr. Pence said. “Those days are over.”
Mr. Pence called on every state to “ensure that the resources, benefits, programs and protections that are available to children and their families are also extended to the unborn.” He urged a ban that would prohibit abortions based on the race, gender or disability of the fetus, and called for the end of abortion pills and “mail-order abortion.”
He also called for paring back “the tangle” of adoption regulations, and for employers who pay for employee travel for abortion to promote adoption instead. His proposals received much applause, and shouts of “Amen.”
“Remember who you are fighting for,” he said. “I believe with all my heart that the day will come that the right to life is the law of the land in every state.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
