Global Courant 2023-04-14 16:00:40
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidates grappled with the issue of abortion early in the campaign, balancing between a party base that favors banning the procedure and a U.S. majority that wants it to remain legal in most cases.
The issue has become more challenging for the GOP to navigate following an intense reaction to last summer’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, which has hurt Republicans in numerous elections since then, and more recent lawsuits challenging access to the abortion pill mifepristone. The latest scramble for 2024 Republican hopefuls shows one party is still trying to figure out how to use its new legal power from the Supreme Court to restrict abortion on a national level.
The latest contender to launch a 2024 exploratory commission, Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., toured Iowa and New Hampshire this week and told WMUR he would “absolutely” sign a 20-week abortion ban. But he didn’t say if that was his threshold, and when asked separately if he would support a federal ban, he balked.
“I would simply say that the fact, when you look at the issue of abortion, is one of the challenges that we have — we continue to have the most restrictive conversations without broadening the scope,” Scott said in New Hampshire. . “I am 100% pro-life, I never run away from that. But the truth is, when you look at the issues with abortion, I’m starting with a very important conversation.”
From there, Scott recalled an exchange he had with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the impact of abortion on African-American women’s employment.
In an interview that aired the day before, Scott evaded multiple questions CBS news on whether he supports federal restrictions on abortion, instead criticizing proponents of legal abortion.
“I think we don’t spend enough time understanding how far the far left has gone on the issue of abortion,” he said. When asked if being “100% pro-life” means he favors federal restrictions, Scott replied, “That’s not what I said.”
Scott is not alone. Other Republican contenders have also tried to avoid a clear stance on abortion, instead attacking liberals as the real extremists for pushing broad protections without restrictions late in pregnancy, which surveys say is popular. Democrats say the government should stay out of the issue and leave abortion decisions to women and their doctors.
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador, would not say after the launch of her presidential campaign whether she would sign the federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks, which has been proposed by her fellow South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham.
“We need consensus on this,” Haley said NBC’s “TODAY” show in February. “When we look at 15 weeks, we have to understand that we don’t think abortion is right until birth. And so we must at least decide: when is it good?”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, a devout Christian and conservative who has long been at the forefront of the fight to restrict abortion, came out for abortion restrictions in every US state after the Supreme Court after Roe’s fall.
But even Pence, who has visited early states and made strides toward a presidential run, struggles with where to draw the line.
In an interview last month with New Hampshire-based WMUR, Pence was repeatedly asked if he supported a South Carolina state law that would make the death penalty for women undergoing an abortion. He first pivoted to say he supports “pro-life measures” at the national level.
But when asked by the interviewer if such laws encourage a culture of living, Pence objected.
“I must tell you that I am not familiar with those proposals and I have no way of responding to them or confirming them,” he said.
His comments immediately sparked backlash from local Planned Parenthood, which supports abortion rights labeled his rhetoric ‘dangerous’.
Pence’s team later issued a clarification to WMUR, saying he has reviewed the legislation and does not support it.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has also taken steps to run for president and is seen by many as the main alternative to former President Donald Trump, has so far not taken center stage on the issue. But that could change. On Thursday, the Florida legislature passed an abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy, which DeSantis quietly signed into law that same day.
Meanwhile, Trump, the GOP frontrunner, has largely steered clear of the issue since Roe’s fall, despite his role in choosing three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the landmark ruling.
The warning comes amid a flurry of activity, driven by Republicans across the country, that continues to keep abortion on the radar.
Last week, Idaho became the first state to restrict out-of-state travel to have an abortion, while a GOP-appointed judge invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, sparking a court battle by profession.
Former Ohio governor John Kasich, who ran for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016, said the party should be willing to compromise, perhaps approving legal abortion up to the third trimester.
“I think there’s a good opportunity to try to reach a reasonable compromise,” Kasich said on MSNBC. “It’s the way they should, frankly, solve this problem.”
“The first flash of this was Kansas,” he said, citing last year’s vote to protect abortion rights in the deep red state that predicted the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 election. The party needs to figure that out. Just like they have to pick out weapons.’
