Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley sidestepped a question on the high-profile abortion case in Texas, in which a woman was denied an abortion that her doctor deemed to be medically necessary.
In the interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Haley would not criticize the Texas Supreme Court, which diverged from the lower court in denying the woman, Kate Cox, an abortion, but Haley said it was important for the state Legislature to take steps to ensure similar situations don’t happen in the future.
“Well, I think it is the right thing that unelected justices no longer decide this, and it’s in the hands of the people. I appreciate that Texas went more on the pro-life side, but as we go through this — listen, my heart broke for her because I had trouble having my children,” Haley told host Jonathan Karl in the interview that aired Sunday, when he asked what she thought of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Haley has avoided embracing a specific position on abortion laws, saying that it’s important to be compassionate toward woman in difficult situations, while insisting that she is still as pro-life as can be. On the issue of a national abortion ban, she has said she would sign any law but dismissed the possibility of any such ban arriving to the president’s desk, noting the Senate could never reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass any legislation.
“The states are now going to have to look at these because what we don’t want to see is a woman with a rare condition having to carry a baby until term,” Haley added.
In Texas, Cox’s doctor told her that her fetus was almost certainly not going to survive and that carrying the fetus to term would risk her own chances of having more children, which she has expressed her desire to do.
Karl pressed Haley on 2024 presidential candidate Chris Christie’s criticism of her that she would not give a direct answer on whether the Supreme Court made the right decision.
Asked whether she would say now, directly, whether it was the wrong decision, Haley said the court followed the law.
“I mean, the Supreme Court said what — that the law that the state put was the one they had to follow, right?” she said, adding, “So that’s when a state corrects itself and says, ‘How do we make sure that doesn’t happen again?’ We tweak things all the time as governors.”
Pressed again on whether it was the right decision, Haley said, “Well, the court had to follow the law. The law said that she couldn’t have the abortion. Now, it’s up to the Legislature in Texas to say, ‘How do we make sure there are no more Kates that go through that?’ That’s what you look at.”
“As a governor, you don’t just say, ‘This is golden.’ As a governor, when something happens that churns your stomach, that says that’s what this was intended to be, you go back and say, ‘OK, what do we do to make sure that — that we are saving as many babies as possible, but also supporting as many moms as possible?’ It’s not as cut and dried as everybody wants, but states will self-correct to this. That’s what they do,” she added.