Pence Slams Trump’s State-Controlled Abortion Position as ‘Slap in the Face’

(HorizonPost.com) – Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday criticized Donald Trump’s latest position on abortion, accusing the former president of washing his hands “of the battle for life,” ABC News reported.

In a video statement released on April 8, Trump did an about-face on federal legislation limiting abortion, saying it should be an issue for the states. Trump said each state should be allowed to “determine by vote or legislation” what the law should be, explaining that it should be left to “the will of the people” to follow their hearts or faith and do what is right for themselves and their families.

Describing Trump’s position as “a slap in the face” to the pro-life voters who supported him in 2016 and 2020, Pence said too many Republicans were willing to “wash their hands of the battle for life.”

Pence wrote on X that when Republicans boldly “speak the truth” and stand for the principle that “human life begins at conception and should be defended,” they win on the issue of life.

The former vice president said that in overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion “to the states and the American people.” He argued that the American people elect the president, senators, and congressmen and that a majority of them “long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law.”

Pence noted Trump’s role in ending Roe, saying that by nominating conservative justices, the Trump administration helped to send Roe “to the ash heap of history where it belongs.”

Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short also blasted Trump’s change of policy in a scathing statement, urging the Republican presidential candidate to acknowledge that life begins at conception. Short described Trump’s statement as a “political calculation” that sought to “avoid confronting the fundamental evil” of abortion.

Short added that Trump was continuing to “drift away” from his former administration’s conservative achievements.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who endorsed Trump early in the primaries, also criticized the former president’s statement, describing his position as “a mistake.”