GOP presidential candidates divided on federal government’s role in abortion limits

The five Republican presidential candidates onstage during the third GOP primary debate Wednesday were critical of their party’s efforts to chart a path forward on abortion in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who argued the country is “better off when we can promote a culture of life,” said Republicans at the state-level must do a better job countering initiatives aimed at limiting abortion restrictions. 

“You got to do a better job on these referenda. I think of all the stuff that’s happened to the pro-life cause, they have been caught flat footed on these referenda and they have been losing the referenda,” DeSantis said, seemingly referencing the Ohio ballot measure that passed Tuesday enshrining a state constitutional right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability.

“A lot of the people who are voting for the referenda are Republicans who would vote for a Republican candidate. So, you got to understand how to do that,” he added. 

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called herself “unapologetically pro-life,” said the abortion question is a “personal issue for every woman and every man.” 

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“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” Haley said. “So when we’re looking at this, there are some states that are going more on the pro-life side. I welcome that. There are some states that are going more on the pro-choice side. I wish that wasn’t the case. But the people decided.” 

The former Trump administration official also indicated that she would be open to signing federal legislation that would restrict access to abortions, but said she doesn’t see a path forward for that happening. 

“When it comes to the federal law …  be honest,” Haley said. “It’s going to take 60 Senate votes, a majority of the House and a president to sign it. So no, we haven’t had 60 Senate votes in over 100 years. We might have 45 pro-life senators. So no Republican president can ban abortions any more than a Democrat president can ban these state laws.”

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Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was the strongest proponent of federal laws banning abortion, arguing in support of a 15-week national limit.  

“I would not allow states like California, Illinois or New York to have abortion up until the day of birth,” he said.  

“I would challenge both Nikki [Haley] and Ron [DeSantis] to join me at a 15-week limit. It is in our nation’s best interest. And frankly, I think it’s unethical and unethical and immoral to allow for abortions up until the day of birth,” he added, noting that he would also support federal funding for crisis pregnancy centers and promoting adoption. 

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Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy encouraged more men to speak out against abortion and slammed the approval of the Ohio ballot measure as emblematic of the “Republican culture of losing.”  

“The Republicans did not have an alternative amendment or vision on the table,” he said. 

Ramaswamy then demanded “sexual responsibility for men,” calling it the “missing ingredient” in the pro-life movement. 

“We live in an era of reliable genetic paternity tests that are 100% reliable, so we can say men deserve more responsibility. So we can tell women, we’re all in this together. It’s not men’s rights versus women’s rights. It’s about human rights,” he argued. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed efforts to implement federal restrictions on abortions, arguing that federal intervention will “short circuit” states and that there isn’t consensus among Republicans about what those restrictions should be.

“For 50 years conservative lawyers have been arguing that the federal government should have absolutely nothing to do with this issue constitutionally because it’s nowhere in the Constitution. And then [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] comes and we finally gain that victory,” he said.  

“And now we have people running to say, let’s short circuit the states from doing what they need to do. And let’s go right to some type of federal ban and a certain number of weeks, and people on the stage have been all over the place – 20 weeks, 15 weeks 12, 6,” he added. 

“We should not short circuit that process until every state’s people have the right to weigh in on it,” Christie said.