(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he would not sign a federal abortion ban.
Ramaswamy clarified that, though he would not ban abortion, he was personally opposed to abortion, according to Life News.
“I’m personally a believer that unborn life is life,” he said, setting up his basic agreement with the pro-life movement, before disagreeing with part of it.
Despite describing himself as “unapologetically pro-life,” Ramaswamy made comments on The All-In podcast that some claimed cast doubt on his pro-life bona fides.
“I would not support a federal abortion ban of any kind on principled ground,” he said to the All-In Podcast. “Because to me, I am grounded in constitutional principles and I think there’s no legal basis for the federal government to legislate,” he continued.
“The Tenth Amendment says that part of the American experiment is that we have diversity across states, and I think this is a state’s issue.”
The Tenth Amendment does not overtly mention diversity. It reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” which allows for public policy diversity, but does not prescribe it.
Ramaswamy said that he was “open to persuasion,” regarding his reading of the constitution, and explained other controversial stances in relation to sexual ethics.
“I’m pro-contraception, I’m pro-adoption, I’m pro-child care, I’m pro-more sexual responsibility for men,” he said, explaining what he meant when he said pro-lifers needed to “walk the walk.”
Ramaswamy is not the only presidential candidate to break with the pro-life movement, President Trump blamed pro-life arguments for the disappointing showing in the last midterms.
The issue was especially problematic with those pro-lifers who “firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters,” he wrote in a Truth Social Post.
