At some point in the extremely near future, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump could issue a ruling that will effectively ban the abortion pill nationwide. That would obviously be a devastating blow to pregnant people across America—but one person who’s apparently thrilled by the prospect? Former vice president and potential 2024 presidential candidate Mike Pence.
In audio obtained by Jezebel, Pence can be heard telling someone during a book-signing event in Houston on Monday that abortion pills have got to go. Asked “Are you thinking about what to do about abortion pills? Would you like to ban those?” Pence responds: “To me, it’s…I’m pro-life, and I think that’s a real issue and it’s really dangerous. Really dangerous.” Pressed further, he says the US “can” ban abortion pills, “And we need to. We need to. My daughter’s written a lot about it, she writes for the Daily Wire…Look up Charlotte Pence Bond, she’s done a lot of really important writing on that topic.” (Charlotte Pence Bond is the producer of a series of antiabortion videos, which accuse health providers of misleading women about the abortion pill; one of them actually uses the word “sinners.”)
Obviously, it’s in no way surprising that the former vice president thinks we “need to” ban abortion pills. As a congressman from Indiana, he attempted to defund Planned Parenthood. He also sponsored and introduced “personhood” bills and one that would have limited rape exceptions to cases of “forcible” rape, a basically prehistoric definition that the federal government no longer recognizes. As governor of the Indiana, he signed, per Politico, “one of the nation’s toughest abortion laws, which would have banned abortions, even in early pregnancy, based on the diagnosis of a fetal disability.” (A federal judge ultimately blocked that law from going into effect.) In 2017, he became the highest-ranking government official at the time to speak at the March for Life (until Trump showed up in 2020). After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, he said, “We must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.” In other words, we “must not rest” until abortion is banned in every state in the country.
And clearly, we’re getting there: Thirteen states have banned abortion outright, with the procedure restricted in numerous others.
As for the abortion pill, a lawsuit filed before an antiabortion Trump judge—Matthew Kacsmaryk—which seeks to revoke the FDA’s two-decade-old approval of mifepristone (the medication taken in conjunction with misoprostol in order to terminate pregnancies), may make Pence’s hopes and dreams re: medicated abortions come true. While legal experts have said the suit would have been immediately thrown out if it were being judged purely on the legal merits, the group behind it will actually get its day in court, thanks to Judge Kacsmaryk. Prior to receiving his federal appointment, Kacsmaryk served as the deputy general counsel for First Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian litigation outfit currently suing CVS on behalf of a nurse practitioner who doesn’t want to prescribe abortion pills. He also wrote an op-ed against abortion, same-sex marriage, sex outside of marriage, birth control, and no-fault divorce (yes). And it’s important to also note that he wrote an opinion, as a judge, attacking the right to contraception. So it seems pretty clear how he’s going to come down here…but he should definitely feel free to surprise everyone.
