Former Vice President Mike Pence used a Friday gathering of some of the nation’s leading Christian conservatives to urge his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to support a 15-week federal abortion ban at minimum.
The exhortation at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference, coming a day before the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, amounted to a challenge for the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, who has been reluctant to endorse a federal abortion ban. The former president is set to address the evangelical assembly on Saturday night.
Pence was among a number of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — to speak Friday to the roughly 500 attendees. All of the candidates emphasized their anti-abortion credentials while urging like-minded activists to stay on the political offensive.
After stronger-than-expected results in last year’s midterm elections, Democrats believe that continuing to fight to preserve abortion access can energize their base, attract moderates alienated by GOP hardliners and help the party hold the Senate, flip the House and reelect Biden. Yet the mood at Friday’s Faith & Freedom Coalition session was jubilant, with attendees cheering every mention of Roe v. Wade’s reversal. “Thank God almighty for the Dobbs decision,” Scott told the crowd.
Reed drew sustained cheers Friday when he opened the gathering by saying that “after 50 years of prayer and fasting and knocking on doors and electing candidates and registering voters and changing the culture of our country, Roe v Wade has been overturned.” Scott has also praised South Carolina’s six-week ban and backs a 15-week federal prohibition. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley supports a federal ban but hasn’t said at what point in pregnancy she would seek to ban abortions.A deeply devout, evangelical Christian, Pence was greeted far more warmly at this year’s Faith & Freedom Coalition conference than he was the last time he addressed the group in 2021. Then, he was booed by some and faced shouts of “traitor.
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