Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley urged the media to ask President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris specific questions about late-term abortion and see whether they supported any limits whatsoever on the procedure.
"I think we’re all pro-life but what I would love is for someone to ask Biden and Kamala Harris are they for 38 weeks? Are they for 39 weeks? Are they for 40 weeks? Because that’s what the media needs to be asking," Haley said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The comment came after a lengthy discussion on debate that saw former Vice President Mike Pence spar with Haley, the former South Carolina governor, over whether she supports the six-week abortion ban that her state's all-male Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday.
"I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted and I had trouble having both of my children, so I’m surrounded by blessings. Having said that, we need to stop demonizing this issue," Haley said.
"This is talking about the fact that unelected justices didn’t need to decide something this personal, because it’s personal for every woman and man," she continued. "Now it’s been put in the hands of the people, that’s great. When it comes to a federal ban let’s be honest with the American people and say it will take 60 Senate votes, it will take a majority of the House. So in order to do that, let’s find conscientious."
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Haley then said, "Can't we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions? Can't we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can't we all agree that doctors and nurses who don't believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them? Can't we all agree that contraception should be available and can't we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?"
Pence later pushed back, saying he was unapologetically pro-life, and appeared to dismiss trying to reach consensus on the issue, saying it didn't demonstrate "leadership" to speak that way.
The South Carolina ban was primarily on procedures performed after about six weeks of pregnancy, after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. The court ruled 4-1, with Chief Justice Donald Beatty as the lone dissenter. The ban takes effect immediately. Months earlier, the court struck down a similar ban that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021.
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Justice John Kittredge, in writing for the majority, acknowledged that the 2023 law also infringes on "a woman’s right of privacy and bodily autonomy," but said the state Legislature reasonably determined this time around that those interests don’t outweigh "the interest of the unborn child to live."
"As a Court, unless we can say that the balance struck by the Legislature was unreasonable as a matter of law, we must uphold the Act," Kittredge wrote.
Beatty wrote that definitions for the terms including "fetal heartbeat" and "conception" did not provide enough clarity on when the ban should begin.
The law was signed this year by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
Haley served as governor from 2011 to 2017, resigning to join the Trump administration.
Fox News’ David Rutz, Adam Shaw and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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