Pence slams Trump’s abortion stance as a ‘slap in the face’
Pence has largely kept his distance from Trump since leaving office and declined to endorse the former president in the 2024 race.
Mike Pence slammed his former boss’ abortion stance Monday by calling it a “slap in the face” to “millions of pro-life Americans” who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
“The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law,” Pence said in a post on X. “But today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life.”
The former vice president’s comments come after Trump announced on Monday that he believes abortion should be left to the states in the post-Roe era and declined to endorse any national limit on the procedure.
Trump had said for months that if elected he would “come together with all groups” and “negotiate something” that would “make both sides happy,” suggesting that “15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.” On Monday, his announcement to leave abortion policy to states drew a swift rebuke from one of the nation’s leading anti-abortion rights groups, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which had urged Trump to endorse a 15-week federal ban.
As a presidential candidate this cycle, Pence was the only major candidate who supported a federal ban on abortion at six weeks, before many people know they’re pregnant. Pence has largely kept his distance from Trump since leaving office and declined to endorse the former president in the 2024 race.
“Republicans win on life when we speak the truth boldly and stand on the principle that we all know to be true – human life begins at conception and should be defended from womb to tomb,” Pence said in the post.
“However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country,” he continued.