Former Vice President Mike Pence said over the weekend that there needed to be a national minimum standard for abortion bans in the United...
Former Vice President Mike Pence said over the weekend that there needed to be a national minimum standard for abortion bans in the United States — a minimum he said should be set at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Pence made the remarks during a CNN interview on Sunday with host Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“I’m pro-life. I don’t apologize for it,” Pence said. “And I couldn’t be more proud to have been a small part of the process in an administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history and gave the question of abortion back to the states and the American people. And I’m going to continue to be a champion for advancing the sanctity of life in every state in this country.”
Pence continued, “But I do believe that the time has also come for us to establish a minimum national standard of 15 weeks.”
“I think creating a minimum national standard for after a child is able to feel pain in the womb is an idea whose time has come. Frankly, it’s supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people,” he said. “And if I’m president of the United States, I will champion that in the Congress, even while we look for even greater protections for the unborn in states across the country.”
Pence said that he believes that the cause of life was the “calling” of the current generation of conservatives, but noted that he does believe in some exceptions.
“Well, let me be clear about this, because we have got to be very clear on language,” Pence said. “Look, I’m pro-life but I have always recognized and accepted abortions in tragic circumstances, rape, incest, the life of the mother.”
Pence said that he believes that the life-of-the-mother exception also covers “an ectopic pregnancy, where the child simply cannot survive.”
“But in cases where it is simply the subjective judgment of a physician or a percentage potential, I always want to err on the side of life,” he said. “I want to give that unborn child every chance at life. And so, for me, I think the suggestion that, when a baby simply is terminal or cannot survive, that we go for — that’s — to me, that’s a misnomer. I believe that that’s covered by the existing exceptions that I have acknowledged.”
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