Playbook: Mike Pence’s plan to go further on abortion

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With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

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PENCE LEANS IN ON ABORTION POLITICS — Tomorrow marks one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking the constitutional right to abortion it established. And ever since, Republicans have been twisting themselves in knots over how to handle the fallout.

Trump avoids talking about the matter almost entirely. Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS signed a six-week abortion ban in the middle of the night in April and has barely spoken about it since. Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.) originally waffled on whether he’d support a nationwide abortion ban. And former South Carolina Gov. NIKKI HALEY has been vague about how she’d handle the issue as president.

Then there’s MIKE PENCE.

More than any other Republican candidate, the former VP has staked his pitch to voters on his unabashed restrictionist stance.

While some Republicans — including Trump and former New Jersey Gov. CHRIS CHRISTIE — say that in a post-Roe America, abortion policy should be left up to the states, Pence has endorsed a nationwide ban on the medical procedure at 15 weeks of gestation.

While some Republicans say the party shouldn’t weigh in on banning widely used abortion drugs, Pence’s 501(c)(4) group Advancing American Freedom has filed an amicus brief supporting a challenge to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the most widely used abortion pill.

And this weekend, while Pence will be among a parade of 2024 hopefuls addressing evangelical conservatives at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington (more on that below), he is the only candidate who’ll also speak at the Students for Life rally on the National Mall, in addition to being the only candidate invited to address a nationwide Susan B. Anthony List call for activists commemorating the end of Roe.

Yesterday, we caught up with Pence to talk about the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs ruling. We wanted to know how he squares his own position with the political reality that abortion restrictions are consistently unpopular in polls and whether he’s worried that opposition will blow back on him and the GOP at the ballot box.

The upshot: not a bit. And he thinks Republican candidates need to stop running scared from the issue and embrace it head on. Listen to excerpts in Playbook Daily Briefing

HOW PENCE SEES IT: The GOP, Pence said, faces a choice, “whether or not we’re going to continue to be a party grounded in the conservative principles that have won not only the White House, but won majorities over the last 50 years again and again — or whether our party is going to shy away from those core traditional principles.”

As for him? “For me, for our campaign, we’re going to stand where we’ve always stood, and that is stand without apology for the right to life,” he said.

In our interview, Pence flatly rejected the conventional wisdom in Washington that Republicans suffered in the midterms because of Dobbs blowback. Those who lost, he said, had a “common denominator” that “has not to do with the issue of abortion.”

“Rather, where candidates were focused on the past — focused on relitigating the past — we did not fare well,” Pence said, a veiled reference to Republicans parroting the false claim that Trump won the 2020 election.

PENCE VS. THE FIELD: His unabashed stance on abortion is one way Pence differentiates himself from the rest of the GOP’s 2024 field. And he’s certainly not shy about drawing that contrast, particularly vis-a-vis Trump.

In our conversation, Pence brought up Trump several times unprompted — though never by name — arguing that Trump’s suggestion that the Dobbs ruling undercut the GOP in 2022 was “wrong,” and hitting back at Trump for criticizing DeSantis’ six-week ban as “too harsh.”

“In my announcement speech, I articulated my concern that my former running mate and other candidates in the field are backing away from an unwavering commitment to the right to life,” Pence said. “It’s not consistent with the kind of principled leadership that I believe Republicans are looking for in the cause of life.”

Asked if there should be a litmus test for Republicans to carry the “pro-life” label, Pence suggested they should all be supporting a nationwide abortion ban: “I would expect that pro-life voters around the country would … be looking for men and women willing to stand unambiguously for advancing the cause of the right to life at every level — at the state and federal level.”

He also vowed to do “everything in my power” to reverse approval of mifepristone if elected: “I do not support mail-order abortion,” he said.

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PENCE’S STRATEGY: As the Republican Party struggles to make inroads with suburban women, Pence’s stances are politically risky for the GOP. But Pence said he has a prescription to help Republicans embrace this issue:

— First, articulate Democrats’ support for late-term abortions, which polling shows many Americans are wary of. “There’s no question that the Democrat Party’s position on abortion is out of step with 90% of the country,” Pence said.

— Second, pair abortion restrictions with what he called policies of “compassion.” That means, for instance, passing funding for anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” that offer services to pregnant women and enacting reforms to make adoption more affordable, he said.

Even if the polls don’t change, Pence won’t be reassessing his stance.

“I knew that the cause of life would have to be my cause … and we’ve never wavered,” he said. “I’ve always stood for life. And whatever the future holds for me and my family, I always will.” For more, read our full story that just posted

Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: RALPH REED — This week, as evangelical conservatives from across the country gather at the Washington Hilton for the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference, they’ll hear from a parade of 2024 hopefuls.

But one man looms above the entire proceeding: Trump.

He’s the only candidate about whom these two things can be said: (1) His personal and public life makes a mockery of the ideals of conservative evangelical voters, and (2) he’s delivered more policy victories for these same voters than any other president.

And those two statements — and their implications for 2024 — lead inevitably to the two central questions central to every political discussion at the conference: (1) Was the deal with Trump worth it for evangelical conservatives? (2) Should they, in essence, renew the contract?

Our guest on Playbook Deep Dive this week is the founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition: RALPH REED. A former aide de camp to Rev. PAT ROBERTSON, Reed is as savvy a political operator as exists on the religious right, with decades of experience that have taken him to the apex of American power.

Ryan sat down with him to talk 2024, Trump and the post-Dobbs political landscape. You can hear the conversation on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — but first, a couple choice moments …