Nikki Haley: GOP president can’t institute national abortion ban

by Olafimihan Oshin - 05/14/23 1:28 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on Sunday that a Republican president could not institute a national abortion ban because lawmakers are so closely divided on the issue.

“For a national standard, I think we have to tell the American people the truth. In order to do a national standard, you’d have to have a majority of the House, 60 Senate votes, and a president. We haven’t had 60 pro-life senators in 100 years,” Haley told moderator Margeret Brennan on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

“So the idea that a Republican president could ban all abortions is not being honest with the American people, any more than a Democrat president could ban these pro-life laws in the states,” Haley added. “So let’s be honest with the American people and say, ‘Let’s find national consensus.’ ”

When Brennan noted that Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential campaign, said that he would sign a 20-week national abortion ban, Haley stressed that a ban would continue to divide lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“I’m not gonna lie to the American people. Nothing’s gonna happen if we don’t get 60 votes in the Senate. We’re not even close to that on the Republican or the Democrat side,” Haley told Brennan. “Why try and divide people further? Why not talk about the fact that we should be trying to save as many babies as possible and support as many mothers as possible?”

“I think the media has tried to divide them by saying we have to decide certain weeks,” Haley added. “In states, yes. At the federal level, it’s not realistic. It’s not being honest with the American people.”

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, called for a national consensus on the issue of abortion last month, saying that restrictions recently passed in GOP-led states would not be approved on the federal level.

“They say Republicans are about to ban all abortions nationwide and send women to prison. These wildly false claims amplified by a sympathetic media are not designed to do anything other than score political points,” Haley said at the time.

It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision established nearly 50 years ago that established the constitutional right to abortion.