Presidential Roundup: What the Candidates Are Saying about Abortion
Republicans have struggled to find appealing stance on the issue
As we advance for the next year, I intend to cover the presidential election heavily and with an emphasis on the statements made regarding women’s issues. It will be a weekly roundup of what is going on in the race for the highest office in the land. So here’s what’s happened in the past week:
Nikki Haley criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville for delaying the confirmation of 300 military officers whom President Biden hoped to appoint to the Pentagon staff. Tuberville had protested the military’s policy of paying for abortion travel expenses. Haley also criticized the policy and said she would end it as president.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said President Donald Trump was wrong when he blamed the midterm losses on Roe v. Wade being overturned. Pence said Republicans could win without changing its longtime antiabortion approach. Trump had blamed the extreme antiabortion positions that make no exception for rape and incest as the reason for the loss. Many within the antiabortion movement were upset with those statements.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the country could reduce abortions by forcing men to pay child support from conception. He praised Sen. Marco Rubio’s effort to pass the Unborn Child Support Act, which requires the father to pay child support in the first month of the embryo’s development. Both politicians were widely criticized for suggesting the policy.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said abortion should be left to the states to decide on regulation. He inaccurately contended on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that abortion was legal for up to nine months in his state. Christie had said that he thinks referenda or executive/legislative action in states are the best way to determine the country’s approach. He’s said that he would support a bill banning abortion at a certain point if Congress passed it. Christie then told NPR that he thought that was unlikely to happen.