Mike Pence calls for 15-week abortion ban on eve of anniversary of Roe being overturned

Pence is one of many Republicans speaking at a gathering of evangelical voters

Former Vice President Mike Pence called for a national 15-week abortion ban, on the day before the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, during his speech at a gathering of evangelical Christians.

Mr Pence spoke at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference and criticised Republicans who have said that abortion has become politically toxic.

“But let me say from my heart, the cause of life is the calling of our time and we must not rest and must not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the centre of American law in every state in this country,” he said.

Many Republicans have feared that the court’s overturning of the enshrined right to an abortion led to Republicans losing many winnable races in the 2022 midterm elections. But Mr Pence claimed that Democrats like President Joe Biden were actually the extremists on abortion.

“Democrats support abortion on demand, all the way up to the moment of birth and taxpayer funding of abortion and they need to be held to account,” he said, despite there not being evidence to that effect. “We must support efforts in statehouses across the country to protect the unborn, support women facing Crisis pregnancies with new and renewed resources and literally with nearly every nation in Europe, limiting abortion to 12 to 15 weeks.”

Mr Pence added that Democrats are out of line with other countries.

“The fact is today abortion law in the United States is more aligned with China and North Korea than with Western nations in Europe,” he said. “So I want to say from my heart, every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard.”

Mr Pence is one of many Republican presidents who will attend the Road to Majority conference where conservative evangelical voters are gathering. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former president Donald Trump are among the other candidates speaking.