Haley says state laws should not put women in jail for abortions, calls for more access to contraceptives

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for more “consensus” on abortion, saying that Republicans have a “long way to go” before any federal ban on abortion is put in place.

“I think that we have to humanize this situation and stop demonizing it. But in order to get a federal law, you have to have 60 Senate votes, a majority of the House and a presidential signature,” Haley told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” noting that about 45 senators are anti-abortion.

Bream asked Haley, a former South Carolina governor, whether she would sign a 15-week ban on abortion if she was president. Haley responded that Republicans need to reach an agreement on the policies surrounding abortion in order to reach the 60 votes in the Senate needed to pass a ban.

She said that there should be a consensus on banning late-term abortions, allowing doctors who are anti-abortion to not perform the procedure and ensure that state laws do not put women in jail for having an abortion. She also said there should be more access to contraceptives and more encouragement for adoptions throughout the country.

“We need to look at this and say, how do we make sure we save as many babies as we can and support as many moms as we can,” she said. “And so in order to do that, we’re gonna have to say how do we get 60 votes and I think that we should find consensus.”

“Consensus on the fact that let’s encourage more adoptions that are good quality adoptions, consensus on the fact that we should have contraception —that contraception should be available and consensus that no state law should put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty for having an abortion,” Haley said. “Let’s start there and whatever 60 Senate votes come to, whether that’s 15 weeks, I absolutely would sign it.”