Nikki Haley Tries to Find Consensus on Abortion

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said the next president must find “national consensus” on the issue of abortion.

Speaking at a meeting of one of the country’s largest anti-abortion groups, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Haley said under Roe v. Wade, consensus was replaced by demonization. “No one talks about finding consensus, everyone goes to the barricades and attacks the other side. They’ve taken a sensitive issue that has long divided people into a kind of gotcha bidding war. How many weeks are you for? How many exceptions are you for?”

Abortion is expected to play a significant role in next year’s Republican primaries and the wider presidential race, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last year, RedState observed.

Some conservative strategists have blamed the GOP’s disappointing performance in the 2022 midterms on the abortion issue and warned that it may also play an important role in Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, RedState pointed out.

Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as a fierce defender of abortion rights, and some speculate that former President Donald Trump may turn to Haley for his vice president choice as a counterpoint.

Haley is striking a conciliatory tone on the abortion issue: “These questions miss the point if the goal is about saving as many lives as possible. You don’t save any lives if you can’t enact your position into law, and you can’t do that unless you find consensus.

“Reaching consensus starts with humanizing, not demonizing. Just like I have my story, I respect everyone who has their story. I don’t judge someone who’s pro-choice any more than I want them to judge me for being pro-life.”

The former Governor of South Carolina supports some federal restrictions on abortion law but opposes banning it entirely.

“I do believe there is a federal role on abortion,” she said, but admitted that no Republican president should have the “ability to ban abortion nationwide.”

Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, has expressed concern about the electoral consequences of abortion bans.

In a statement provided to the Washington Post last week, a Trump spokesperson said that he “believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America supports a federal abortion ban, RedState noted.

“President Trump’s assertion that the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion solely to the states is a completely inaccurate reading of the Dobbs decision and is a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement last week.