Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley refused Sunday to pass a federal ban on abortion within a certain number of weeks of gestation, saying to do so would be lying to the American people about what is politically possible.
“I think the media has tried to divide them by saying we have to decide certain weeks,” Ms. Haley in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “In the states, yes. At the federal level, it’s unrealistic. It’s not being honest with the American people.”
She was responding to a question from her interviewer, Margaret Brennan, about why she wouldn’t join another likely candidate, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, in passing a 20-week national ban.
Ms. Haley has said — and repeated in the interview — that the Senate filibuster makes it impossible to pass a federal abortion ban as strict as those passed by many Republican-led states since the Supreme Court struck down lar Roe v. Wade last year. , and that therefore any anti-abortion president will have to find a “national consensus.” (A Republican Senate majority could, if it wanted to, remove the filibuster.) But his comments on Sunday were notable for the explicitness of his refusal to commit to a gestational limit.
That refusal is especially noteworthy because last month one of the nation’s most prominent anti-abortion groups praised her, she said, indicating she would support a federal ban at 15 weeks. The group, SBA Pro-Life America, has said it won’t endorse a candidate who doesn’t commit to going at least that far.
At no time had Ms. Haley made this commitment publicly; in a speech at SBA headquarters on April 25, he stuck to his “national consensus” line. But at that time the group he told a reporter from The Hill that he had “assured that he would set the national consensus in 15 weeks”.
In a statement late Sunday afternoon, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the SBA, said there was a consensus for a 15-week ban, which has not been evident in the election or consistently in the polls, and said, “The pro-life movement must have a candidate who will courageously defend this consensus, and as president will work tirelessly to gather the necessary votes in Congress. To dismiss this task as unrealistic is not acceptable.”
Ms. Haley, who signed a 20-week ban as governor of South Carolina, is far from the only Republican trying to avoid details about abortion.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign has said it wants to leave the issue to the states. Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has called himself “pro-life” while shielding himself from specifics. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is likely to enter the presidential race soon, recently signed a six-week ban in his state, but it has not been backed by anything similar at the federal level.
One potential candidate, Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, went in the opposite direction on Sunday. In an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki,” Mr. Sununu, who describes himself as pro-choice but signed a ban on most abortions after 24 weeks in his state, said the federal government should not be involved at all.
“Not only would I not sign a national abortion ban, no one should be talking about signing a national abortion ban,” he said.
Most of the candidates are walking a tightrope between social conservatives — who are an influential part of the Republican base and have been waiting decades for the chance to ban abortion nationwide — and the political reality that the Dobbs ruling of the Supreme Court and the wave of state-level bans. that followed have turned anti-abortion policies into serious liabilities among Americans in general.
This has been made clear through a series of election results, beginning with Kansas voters’ overwhelming rejection of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment last August and continuing through Wisconsin voters’ choice this month past of a liberal Supreme Court justice who pledged to support abortion rights.
