ICYMI
VP PENCE WAS ABSOLUTELY INSTRUMENTAL IN ROE V. WADE BEING OVERTURNED!!
An anti-abortion law Vice President Mike Pence signed as governor of Indiana could become the case that lets the Supreme Court reshape abortion rights as soon as next year.
The Indiana law — which prohibited abortion because of the gender, race or disability of the fetus, such as Down syndrome — was blocked by lower courts and is one of three significant anti-abortion state statutes that are sitting one level below the Supreme Court. If Indiana appeals this fall, and the justices accept the case, it could be the opening for a broader ruling on Roe v. Wade that could redefine abortion rights nationwide.
Pence could then take double credit for the anti-abortion movement’s ascendancy: The politician whose evangelical credentials helped carry conservative religious voters to President Donald Trump also helped deliver the high court case that could scale back access to abortion 45 years after Roe.
Throwing Roe into the “ash heap of history,” as Pence put it, has been his defining mission, the core of a political career that took him from Congress to the governor’s mansion to the vice presidency.
The Indiana legislation “is a testament to Vice President Pence’s long pro-life legacy,” said Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel at Americans United for Life, which advocates against abortion. “He was a leader in Congress on defunding Planned Parenthood going back to 2005, 2006. He raised the profile of the issue.”
Three months before Trump selected the then-governor as his running mate in 2016, Pence signed the bill, which pushes new legal issues to the forefront. Many of the prior court and political fights had centered on matters such as mandating waiting periods before an abortion, or instituting building codes so stringent that many abortion clinics would have to shut down.
Proponents of the ban say a fetus should not be aborted because of a disability or fetal abnormality. But the Indiana law, and a subsequent one passed in Ohio, have sparked a fierce and emotional debate about whether a woman should be forced to carry or deliver a child with a severe or life-threatening disability or condition.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/23/pence-anti-abortion-law-roe-wade-735088