On Sunday, Indiana Governor and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence declared, “I’m pro-life, I don’t apologize for it” in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace.
Wallace asked Pence about the law he signed banning abortions sought on the basis of genetic abnormalities, race, or sex; requiring ultrasounds before abortions and admitting privileges for abortionists; and mandating that aborted babies be either buried or cremated by abortion facilities. Abortion advocates have filed lawsuits against its ultrasound and fetal abnormality provisions.
As long as Roe v. Wade is currently on the books, Wallace asked, “why does a state have the authority to limit the reasons a woman has to end her pregnancy?” Pence replied by noting that many countries’ abortion restrictions are more in line with Indiana’s than the most expansive interpretation of the Roe precedent, and that disabled children deserved society’s respect.
He also noted that the courts were still reviewing legal arguments against the law. The Supreme Court has a history of upholding a wide variety of abortion restrictions, particularly Planned Parenthood v. Casey’s affirmation that the state can regulate abortion both in the interest of fetal life and maternal health.
“I believe in the sanctity of life,” Pence concluded, “and I stand for that principle, and I’m grateful to be standing with Donald Trump and his strong commitment to the right to life.”
Pence has a 100% pro-life record with the National Right to Life Committee and 0% scores with Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Trump is now running on a thorough pro-life platform, including a list of likely Supreme Court nominees that gained widespread praise from pro-life leaders.
Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, is 100% pro-abortion and a longtime ally of Planned Parenthood, which has endorsed her and donated heavily to her political career. Her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, is a former “pro-life Democrat” who supported some incremental pro-life measures as Governor of Virginia, such as parental notification and banning partial-birth abortion. But he ran for Senate vowing to protect Roe v. Wade, and once there, established a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record. He is now “very strongly supportive” of abortion, and would not protect the Hyde Amendment as vice president.
