Pence slams Trump’s abortion rhetoric: He’s ‘backing away’ from the cause

Former Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News that former President Trump is “backing away” from his commitment after Trump is pushing back on a five-week abortion ban. 

“I have to tell you that, you know, the president and I have had our differences. Two and a half years ago, we had a clash,” Pence said Thursday. “But since then, I see the President walking away from the commitment to the right to life, I see him walking away from fiscal responsibility, I see him walking away from American leadership in the world.”

Trump joined NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday for “Meet the Press.” He pushed back on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) heartbeat bill, which prohibits abortions once a heartbeat can be detected in a fetus. Welker asked Trump if he would support a 15-week ban. 

“I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t. I mean, ‘DeSanctis’ is willing to sign a 5-week and 6-week ban,” Trump said, using a nickname he calls DeSantis. “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” 

Pence criticized Trump’s view, saying he is proud of the pair’s administration for appointing three of the Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. 

“To have the former president say that a heartbeat bill in Florida, or for that matter, the same bill that was passed in Georgia and Ohio and Iowa was, quote, a terrible mistake, I think it … just suggests to you that he is backing away from that cause,” Pence said. 

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump took credit for ending the decades-long federal protection for abortion. 

“I was able to do something that nobody thought was possible, end Roe v. Wade. For 52 years, people talked, spent vast amounts of money, but couldn’t get the job done. I got the job done! Thanks to the three great Supreme Court Justices I appointed, this issue has been returned to the States, where all Legal Scholars, on both sides, felt it should be,” he said in the post.

Pence said he has been a champion of the anti-abortion cause since his days as a governor and congressman. If he were president, he said he would fight for “as strong protections as we can.” 

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision held that the Constitution does not grant the right to an abortion, returning power to individual states. Pence said he believes the decision should still be up to the states, but wants a minimum national standard of 15 weeks for liberal-leanings states like “California, Illinois or here in New York.”

“To me, it’s a minimum standard; I want to go farther than that. I support legislation that goes farther than that,” Pence said.  

If Trump were elected for another term, he said he would negotiate with both sides. 

“I would sit down with both sides and I would negotiate something. and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,” he said on NBC. 

Pence will join DeSantis and four other GOP presidential hopefuls Wednesday at the next Republican presidential primary debate in California.