GOP presidential candidates battled Wednesday night over whether the next president should sign a federal abortion ban — a major question dividing the primary field even as all candidates self-identify as “pro-life.”
Both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley refused to answer directly.
DeSantis touted the six-week abortion ban he signed in Florida — a law that has yet to take effect, pending state Supreme Court review — but dodged the moderator’s question of whether he would sign a similar federal ban into law.
“I will stand on the side of life,” he responded. “I understand Wisconsin will do it different than Texas. I understand Iowa and New Hampshire will do it different. But I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.”
Haley also demurred, as she has in the past, arguing that national ban isn’t likely to garner the needed 60 Senate votes to pass and calling for narrower restrictions instead.
“Can’t we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions? Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can’t we all agree that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortions shouldn’t have to perform them? Can’t we agree that contraception should be available? Can’t we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?”
Former Vice President Mike Pence went after Haley for her answer, calling it “the opposite of leadership” and pledging to sign a national ban.
“It’s not a states-only issue. It’s a moral issue,” he said, calling for “a minimum standard in every state.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also voiced support for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, saying: “We can’t leave it to Illinois. We can’t leave it to Minnesota.”
But another red state governor on the debate stage, North Dakota’s Doug Burgum, took the opposite stance, saying that while he signed a 6-week ban in his own state, he is against federal legislation.
“The feds are stepping into people’s lives and stepping into people’s businesses over and over,” Burgum said. “If we say the fed should be in this, where do we stop?”
The clash highlighted how Republicans have yet to rally around a single strategy on abortion more than a year after achieving their decades-long goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, with conservatives continuing to argue over what point in pregnancy to ban the procedure, whether to allow exemptions for rape, incest and health risks, and whether states or the federal government should decide.
