Former Vice President Mike Pence dismissed former President Donald Trump’s argument that the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade contributed to the GOP’s disappointing performance in last year’s midterm elections.
“The former president actually suggested that we lost elections in the midterms because we overturned Roe v. Wade, I don’t believe that for a second,” Pence told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt on Thursday.
“I think when you stand on the right to life and you stand with principle and compassion and demonstrate a willingness to put our arms not just around the unborn, but around newborns, around women in crisis pregnancies we can continue to win hearts and minds.”
Pence’s comments arrive months after Trump declared that the GOP’s performance in last year’s election wasn’t his fault while pointing to the “abortion issue” as being “poorly handed” by Republicans.
Half of voters in one poll indicated that SCOTUS overturning Roe motivated them to cast their ballots last year while a recent NBC News report pointed to “sweeping victories” for abortion rights supporters in seven states since June 2022.
The former vice president has strongly opposed abortion amid his 2024 campaign, calling for fellow GOP candidates to get behind a federal 15-week abortion ban.
His political advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, meanwhile, has gone further by backing federal legislation to bar abortion “after about six weeks” and to “establish fetal personhood,” The New York Times noted.
Social media users on X (formerly Twitter) mocked Pence over his midterm elections take and claimed that “he’s in denial, still.”
