Each GOP presidential candidate should have prepared a position statement on abortion for the third debate after the 2023 elections. Republicans who are supposed to support a smaller federal state should respond in a straightforward manner, as the majority opinion of Dobbs V. Jackson requires. The ruling placed the regulation of abortion firmly under state governments.
Two candidates were still on stage, rushing to bring the abortion debate to a national level. In their replies, both Senator Tim Scott and Ambassador Nikki Haley used leftist memes to describe the pro-life movement.
Scott was made into a Republican caricature when he said that his position on abortions after 15 weeks was to ban them federally. Uncertain is how Scott expects such a law to pass the Senate. In 2018, a 20-week prohibition was defeated, and Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C. )15-week restriction failed in 2022. It is also unclear if a federal prohibition would survive a court challenge after Dobbs.
The worst part of this statement was that he accepted a common accusation made by the Left about the prolife movement. He said, “We shouldn’t just be pro-life before the child is even born.” “We should also be pro-life once the child is born.”
PreBorn’s network of crisis pregnancy centers is home to some of the most committed pro-life activists. They support the mother up to two years after the birth of the child and help facilitate adoption. Could we benefit from more facilities? Sure. Pro-life activists do not just donate money to these organizations, they also work for them to help mom and baby. It is insulting to suggest that the movement doesn’t take this seriously.
Haley, on the other hand, seemed to internalize what was being said on social media and by the mainstream press regarding the need for Republicans on the issue of abortion to be moderate. Haley advocated reaching a national consensus within hours of losing the Ohio ballot measure and Kentucky governorship. Frank Luntz gave it his seal of approval.
Nikki Haley has the best Republican answer on abortion.
The @GOP would be stronger if they used her language. pic.twitter.com/gaXStT7gmG
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) November 9, 2023
Haley may have forgotten that the Senate rejected an act to protect abortion survivors in 2019. Democrats couldn’t even vote for medical care of an infant born after a botched abortion. Haley believes there will be a consensus to ban late-term abortion. When pressed, there is a good reason why no Democrat would limit the procedure. They don’t have any, not even effective infanticide.
Haley’s fumbling response that abortion was a personal matter for everyone, and her extension of an olive branch to pro-abortion advocates were bad enough. She made things worse by smearing the pro-life movement using a favorite pro-abortion phrase: “Let’s ensure that no state law puts a woman behind bars or gives her the death sentence for having an abortion.”
No serious proposal has been made to criminally punish women who get an abortion. The providers are penalized. This boogeyman is as offensive as Andy Beshear’s campaign, which implied that a 12-year-old victim of incest could not have an abortion under most of the heartbeat laws. Haley should apologize to the movement for this disgusting act.
The correct answers were given by two other candidates: former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis admitted that abortion was a state issue, but he did not miss the opportunity to show off his pro-life credentials. He stated that abortion has become a state-level issue and that each state will take a different approach.
“We are better off when everyone counts. We are better off if we can promote lifestyle culture. I also understand that these states do it differently. Texas will not do it the same way as New Hampshire.” DeSantis said that Iowa would not do things the same way as Virginia.
Christie noted Dobbs’s decision to place the issue on the state level and criticized candidates who rushed to support federal legislation. “For more than 50 years, conservative attorneys have argued that the federal government shouldn’t have anything to do with the issue because it’s nowhere in the Constitution. Christie said that Dobbs’s arrival was the final victory. “Now, we have people running around saying, ‘Let us short-circuit the states.'”
Haley, Scott, and Donald Trump must stop accepting the premise of the legacy media that a national position on abortion is needed. Nothing could be farther from the truth in a post-war world. Texas, Georgia Iowa, and Mississippi all reelected governors who had signed heartbeat laws. Georgia was one of the few states where it wasn’t even a campaign issue. Joe Biden was.
Make the Democrats’ terrible foreign policy, disastrous economic policy, and deteriorating security the main issues in the race for the White House in 2024. These are the main issues for many Americans.
