Where do the 2024 GOP White House hopefuls stand on abortion?
Rachel Schilke
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Abortion will be on the ballot for the 2024 presidential election, and several Republican candidates are already establishing their positions on how far they would go either to limit or ban abortion access in their respective states or nationwide.
As of Friday, 13 states have banned abortion with little to no exceptions, and Georgia and Florida have a six-week ban in place. Republican voters will be looking for a candidate who follows their views on the hot-button issue, hoping to see a stronger national ban or are satisfied with the status quo.
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Here are where the GOP hopefuls stand on abortion.
Ron DeSantis
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a six-week abortion ban into law on Thursday night, the latest act by a Republican state to place tighter restrictions on abortion access.
The Florida state legislature passed the bill after hours of debate in the state Senate. DeSantis signed the bill shortly after.
DeSantis had said since the start of the legislative session that if an abortion bill arrived at his desk, he would place his signature on it, so it was no surprise that he was all-in for the six-week ban. The bill bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, taking over the previous state ban, which was at 15 weeks. It does offer exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking, but only up to 15 weeks in pregnancy.
“Signed the Heartbeat Protection Act, which expands pro-life protections and devotes resources to help young mothers and families,” he tweeted Thursday.
As an anti-abortion governor, DeSantis is supportive of measures that will invest in resources for pregnant women. The law will allocate $25 million annually for crisis pregnancy centers that offer counseling for mothers in the hopes of pushing them toward parenting or adoption rather than abortion.
Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump‘s stance on abortion is not something he has spoken about consistently, which could either lean in his favor with Republicans hoping to move on to a new topic or place distance between and GOP voters who aren’t ready to let it go.
Trump’s position on abortion has flipped back and forth. In 2016, he had to convince the conservative base that he had turned from his former abortion rights stance to secure the presidential nomination — he told Meet the Press in 1999 that he was “very pro-choice.”
However, he is smart enough to know that abortion will be a large motivator for Democratic voters in 2024 as it was in 2022, particularly as the midterm elections arrived just months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. After Republicans had a poorer-than-expected performance, the former president was quick to offer his opinion, pointing to his belief that the party should reconsider how strict it should be on the matter.
“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms. I was 233-20!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in January. “It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.”
Tim Scott
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) does not leave voters confused about what side of the abortion line he will stand on.
On Thursday, he said he was “100%” anti-abortion and even stated that he would support a 20-week nationwide ban on abortion.
“We should certainly always side with a culture that preserves and appreciates and respects life,” he said.
While some Republicans may appreciate his firm position on the topic — particularly those in states who do not think their bans go far enough — the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade returned the decision on abortion back to the states, a pillar of conservative ideology. It is possible that Scott’s nationwide ban support could push voters away, hoping for a Republican president that will limit federal government interference.
Mike Pence
Former Vice President Mike Pence is staunchly anti-abortion at both the national and state level, and consistently calls on Republicans to rally together behind the “sanctity of life.”
Before the 2022 midterm elections, Pence asked GOP lawmakers to join together in solidarity and support Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)’s proposed 15-week nationwide ban on abortion, which splintered the Republican Party and contributed to their losses in the election.
“My consistent message will be to legislators and to governors around the country, and the leaders here in Washington, D.C., is to, by all means, advance the cause of life,” Pence said in October. “[Conservatives must] recognize that it may take us as long to restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state as it took us to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Nikki Haley
For Nikki Haley, abortion may be one of the most important and influential topics that could mean success or failure for her 2024 presidential campaign. As a woman who is anti-abortion, she appeals to a group of women who reject that support for abortion rights is a necessary proponent of feminism.
She also could alienate herself from Democratic and Republican women who either support abortion access or do not have interest in the topic, which eliminates a large portion of the vote for both the GOP primary and the national election should she become the party’s nominee.
However, she recently distanced herself from a ruling out of Texas that suspended the use of a decadeslong FDA-approved drug for abortion, stating that elected officials rather than unelected judges should rule on heated matters like the legality of abortion pills.
“What I mean is this is a personal issue for women and for men,” Haley said on Wednesday. “It needs to be treated with the respect that it should. I don’t want unelected judges deciding something this personal.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy is the only Republican in the 2024 presidential race whose campaign has confirmed that he would not support a federal abortion ban, according to TIME.
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“As a constitutional matter, he believes it’s an issue for the states and not the federal government,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.
Ramaswamy hails from Ohio, where the state has banned abortion after 22 weeks. The courts blocked a six-week abortion ban last year, keeping the 22-week ban in place. Ohio is set to be one of the battleground states for abortion access, as activists rally to collect enough signatures to place the right to abortion on the ballot as early as this November.