How Far Would the GOP Presidential Candidates Go to End Abortion?

Discussion on abortion is certain to capture voters’ attention at the first Republican primary debate for the 2024 presidential election, to be held in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last summer, the decision over the legality of abortion was left to states to decide, and conservative-led states rapidly advanced a range of abortion restrictions. The ultimate goal of hard-line antiabortion advocates, however, is to see a federal ban made law.

In fact, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), an influential antiabortion group, has said it may withhold endorsements from candidates who do not support a federal 15-week abortion ban, according to the Washington Examiner.

“It’s possible that we would endorse a candidate, but it’s also possible that we won’t, and we have a very bright line that hasn’t changed and you must communicate your federal minimum standards,” SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser told the Examiner.

While all candidates who qualified for Wednesday’s Republican primary debate oppose abortion, many are split over just how stringent abortion restrictions should be. The candidates’ campaign sites don’t provide specifics on their abortion positions, but here’s what is known so far about their views.

Ron DeSantis

In April, the Florida governor signed the Heartbeat Protection Act, which prohibits abortion once there is a detectable heartbeat. That ban, also known as a 6-week abortion ban, will take effect only if the state’s current 15-week legislation is upheld by the state Supreme Court, according to the AP.

While that legislation may have won him some credit with antiabortion advocates, when asked if he supported a federal ban during a July interview, DeSantis hedged, saying, “It’s really a bottom-up movement, and that’s where we’ve had the most success — Iowa, South Carolina, Florida — and I think you’re going to continue to see a lot of good battles there.”

SBA’s Dannenfelser blasted DeSantis’s response, saying in a statement that his “dismissal of this task is unacceptable to pro-life voters.”

Donald Trump

The former president was formerly pro-choice but shifted gears on the 2016 campaign trail. And having appointed antiabortion Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, he now takes full credit for the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

In April, after his spokesperson told the Washington Post that Trump believed the Supreme Court “got it right” in leaving abortion as a state-level decision, Dannenfelser was quick to chastise Trump as well, casting his statement as a “morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold.”

Trump also criticized DeSantis’s 6-week ban as “too harsh” in a May interview with The Messenger.

But after meeting with Trump, Dannenfelser appeared to backpedal on her criticism, describing his presidency as “the most consequential in American history for the pro-life cause.” Trump more recently said he believes the federal government should play a “vital role” in opposing abortion but has not spelled out what types of restrictions he would support if re-elected.

(While Trump meets all the criteria to appear in Wednesday’s debate, he is reportedly releasing a pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that night instead.)

Mike Pence

In 2011, Pence made waves as a House member when he sought to defund Planned Parenthood. He also supports taking medication abortion off shelves.

The former vice president supports a more hard-line position of a federal ban on abortion at 6 weeks.

According to the AP, Pence has also argued for banning abortion even when a pregnancy isn’t viable, and has urged his 2024 presidential competitors to back a 15-week federal ban. Pence told the outlet in a recent interview that he’s heard “many stories over the years of courageous women and families who were told that their unborn child would not go to term or would not survive. And then they had a healthy pregnancy and a healthy delivery.”

However, some physicians interviewed for the piece cast doubt on Pence’s characterization of those decisions.

Tim Scott

In May, the senator from South Carolina called passage of the state’s 6-week abortion ban (which carves out exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies, and protection of the life of the mother up to 12 weeks) “good news.” And during a recent town hall event, Scott said that as president he would “fight for” a federal 15-week ban.

“If I were president of the United States, I would literally sign the most conservative, pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress,” he said during an interview in April. However, he later acknowledged that “even the 15-week limit is not possible unless we change the hearts and minds of the American people, because it can’t get through Congress.”

Nikki Haley

In 2016, the then-governor of South Carolina signed a 20-week abortion ban into law.

However, Haley has said that passing a federal ban on abortion is unrealistic. “Nothing’s going to happen if we don’t get 60 votes in the Senate,” she said in an interview on CBS‘s “Face the Nation.” But if elected president, Haley has pledged to sign such a ban, according to Fox News.

“There are some states that have erred on the side of abortion. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is. I think that we need to make sure that people’s voices are heard,” Haley said in the CBS interview.

Vivek Ramaswamy

The biotech entrepreneur, who described himself as “unapologetically” pro-abortion, does support states passing 6-week bans, according to the Washington Examiner.

However, Ramaswamy said in a recent CNN interview that he does not believe a federal abortion ban “makes any sense.”

“This is not an issue for the federal government,” he told the outlet. “It is an issue for the states. I think we need to be explicit about that. If murder laws are handled at the state level, and abortion is a form of murder — the pro-life view — then it makes no sense for that to be the one federal law.”

Doug Burgum

In April, the North Dakota governor signed into law a ban on nearly all abortions that offers exceptions to the procedure only to save the life of the mother and for victims of rape and incest during the first 6 weeks of pregnancy.

However, Burgum has pledged not to sign a federal abortion ban, he told CNN in June. “I think the decision that was made returning the power to the states was the right one,” he said.

Chris Christie

In 2022, the former New Jersey governor met with SBA’s Dannenfelser to discuss how states could prepare for the Supreme Court’s possible reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to the Washington Post. Christie also vetoed $7.5 million in state funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning providers, drawing plaudits from New Jersey Right to Life, the Post noted.

However, Christie said he does not support a federal ban on abortion. “What I stand for … is what conservatives have been arguing for for 50 years, which is that Roe [v. Wade] was wrong, there’s no federal constitutional right to an abortion and that the states should decide,” Christie said during a CNN town hall in June.

Asa Hutchinson

In 2021, the then-governor of Arkansas signed into law a near-total abortion ban that did not include exceptions for either rape or incest. However, a year later, he suggested those exceptions should be “revisited” if Roe v. Wade were to be reversed, calling them “very appropriate.”

If elected president, the former governor of Arkansas said he would sign a federal ban on abortion but would support exceptions for rape or incest.

Hutchinson said on Sunday that he qualified for the debate, which appears likely, but as of the time of publication, the Republican National Committee had not yet confirmed his status.

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