GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley took a swing at former President Trump and other male politicians Friday for “demonizing” the issue of abortion, specifically with talks around a potential 15-week ban.
“The fellas just don’t know how to talk about this,” Haley told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview on “Inside Politics.” “They’ve got to humanize this issue and stop demonizing it.”
Haley has previously called for civility when it comes to the abortion debate and has not committed to supporting any length of ban, saying she will only sign a bill that makes it through Congress.
“I would support anything that would pass. But you have to be honest with the American people,” Haley said in November during a GOP primary debate. “I would sign anything that would get 60 Senate votes.”
“Don’t make the American people think you’re going to push something on them when you don’t even have the votes in the Senate,” she added at the time.
Haley, the only remaining primary rival against Trump, has also called the issue of abortion “a personal issue for every woman and every man.”
In Friday’s interview, highlighted by Mediaite, she argued there needs to be more focus on providing other resources and find a consensus among lawmakers.
“The focus needs to be banning late-term abortions, encouraging adoptions, and making sure doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion shouldn’t have to perform them,” she said. “Having contraception be accessible and making sure no state law says to a woman who’s had an abortion that she’s going to jail or getting the death penalty. Just start there.”
“This is about babies and women and a personal situation that they are in,” Haley added.
President Biden’s reelection campaign went after Haley last November for her stance on abortion, calling her “no moderate” and citing a previous interview in which she said she would sign a 6-week national abortion ban if it passed.
“Nikki Haley is no moderate — she’s an anti-abortion MAGA extremist who wants to rip away women’s freedoms just like she did when she was South Carolina governor,” the campaign said in a statement.