Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley doubled down on abortion comments she made during last week’s third GOP debate while speaking at an evangelical forum on Friday.
During the Thanksgiving family forum in Des Moines, Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the Christian group hosting the event, questioned Haley’s recent abortion comments, in which she called for the nation to find a consensus on limiting abortion. Noting the remarks sounded “pro-choice” to some anti-abortion evangelicals, he asked, “Can you assure them why that’s not a pro-choice answer?”
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Haley reiterated that she was unapologetically “pro-life” as she spoke to a crowd of evangelical voters who are a crucial voting bloc that will help determine which candidate will win the Iowa caucuses.
“I think you can look at my entire record as governor. I fought for life whether it was a pain-capable bill, whether it was making sure that women had to wait to see an ultrasound before they made a decision,” said Haley, former two-term governor of South Carolina.
“All the things that we did to focus on life as governor, at the United Nations — they said that I was the most pro-life ambassador they had ever had represent the U.S. at the United Nations because we did everything we could to make sure [that] 1. our taxpayer dollars never went towards anything that would take that life away or abortion,” Haley continued. “And we always tried to do what we could to make sure that we honored the sanctity of life.”
At last week’s debate in Miami, Haley once again remarked that while she wants to limit the number of abortions in the United States, a federal abortion bill doesn’t have the 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and become law, nor would President Joe Biden sign such legislation into law. The former governor also called for more sensitivity in talking about the issue. Her comments come as abortion has proven to be an electoral cudgel for Republicans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.
Vander Plaats later pressed Haley on whether she would have signed a six-week abortion bill into law when she was governor. “Yes. Whatever the people decide, you should do,” Haley said. “I think it’s right to be in the hands of the people. I think that the people decided this was put in the states; that’s where it should be. Everybody can give their voice to it.”
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Haley then pointed to South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban as one example of listening to what voters want.
“And that’s what I’m saying when we find these states that are more pro-life. It’s a blessing; we should welcome that,” Haley said. “In order to get those people that are going on the other side, we’ve got to continue to pull them in and keep talking to them about how we want to save as many babies as we can.”
