WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Republican presidential candidates marked the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization at a key conference for social conservatives in the nation’s capital.
The Road to Majority Conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition was the first “cattle call,” or event featuring a lineup of candidates, of the 2024 GOP presidential primary cycle. The June 23-24 conference overlapped with the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision, prompting Republican presidential hopefuls to address the issue of abortion to a predominantly evangelical and pro-life audience, signaling how each candidate plans to discuss the issue with voters.
Republican presidential candidates marked the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization at a key conference for social conservatives in the nation’s capital.Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were among the GOP candidates who spoke at the conference June 23, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump scheduled for the following day. Both Christie and DeSantis are Catholic.
Christie said he campaigned and governed as an “unabashedly pro-life Republican” during his tenure in a heavily Democratic state, including vetoing Planned Parenthood funding, which would prepare him to take on the issue in the White House.
“And being pro-life — I would suggest to all of you — has to be longer than the nine months in the womb,” Christie said, also listing efforts to oppose human trafficking and to work to expand opportunity in education as crucial pro-life priorities.
Christie talks forgiveness
Christie also spoke about the need for character in those elected to public office. Christie said his Catholic faith tells him he is not free of sin; but it also requires that “when I do sin, when I do make mistakes, when people who work for me do the same thing, that I must admit that; I must take responsibility.”
He said, “That part of getting forgiveness — whether it’s from God, or whether it’s from the people who elected you, when you make mistakes — is to first accept that responsibility and ask for forgiveness.”
Christie, who has become a vocal critic of Trump despite once being his ally, told the crowd to beware of leaders who won’t take accountability. He was heckled by some in the audience when he made clear he was speaking about Trump.
“You can boo all you want,” Christie said, arguing Trump should not hold office again.
Pence defends pro-lifers, takes aim at Dodgers
Pence took a more indirect approach to his former running mate, saying he was “proud to stand shoulder to shoulder” with him for four years. But he also criticized those who have “gone on to blame the overturning of Roe vs. Wade for election losses in 2022,” a claim Trump made earlier this year in comments blaming pro-life voters for Republicans’ relatively poor midterm showing.
“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 center of American law in every state,” Pence said.
Pence said that as president, he would also work to promote religious liberty and ban surgical or hormonal gender transitions for minors.
Pence also took aim at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent decision to honor a group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at a Pride Night event. Some have described the group’s parody of Catholic imagery as irreverent or anti-Catholic, a claim the LA chapter of the group disputed.
“There is no place in America’s pastime for anti-Catholic religious bigotry,” he said.
DeSantis touts family policy
DeSantis spent relatively little time in his address discussing abortion, except to tout his recent signature of a bill banning abortion after six weeks. However, the legality of abortion is in a sort of limbo in Florida, as that law will only go into effect if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld amid an ongoing legal challenge before the Florida Supreme Court.
“We have also delivered in Florida on promoting a culture of life,” DeSantis said. “And that means signing the heartbeat bill into law that protects unborn children when there’s a detectable heartbeat. It was the right thing to do.”
DeSantis also did tout some policies he described as family-friendly, like eliminating a sales tax on some baby items. But the bulk of his speech centered on “a culture of winning” in Florida, his opposition to COVID-era lockdowns, his tussles with Disney and what he called the “woke mind virus,” without defining the term.
By itself, “woke” is a term that originates from the Christian religious language of Black Americans, referring to one’s spiritual and moral vigilance, but recently has been appropriated by political activists to refer instead to secular, progressive political ideas.
“Some people say not to worry about woke, and it’s not something that we should be concerned with,” DeSantis said. “First of all, having a society that’s rooted in truth is important. Don’t tell me that a man can get pregnant and expect me to accept that — I will not accept that. And you cannot have a society that accepts that.”
Remarks from additional GOP candidates
Meanwhile, another Catholic and GOP candidate from Florida, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, said a pro-life ethic is personal for him after he and his wife, Gloria, struggled with infertility.
“I want to also express my profound gratitude to God for the celebration of the anniversary of what historians will call the greatest thing in history, the overturning of Roe versus Wade,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and who has become a vocal advocate of passing a federal 15-week abortion ban, said that if a candidate cannot embrace such a policy, “you should not be the nominee for the Republican Party.”
With the exception of Christie, candidates who spoke at the first day of the forum were subtle in their criticism of Trump, as the crowd often enthusiastically cheered references to him.
Discussing President Trump?
In opening remarks at the conference, Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed acknowledged that Trump appeared the favorite among the crowd, asking the participants not to boo other speakers with whom they disagree on one or only a few things. While the conference is a small sampling of social conservative activists and not representative of the wider Republican base or the general electorate, Trump is currently leading polls of the GOP primary.
Speaking critically of what he saw as the media’s portrayal of evangelicals and their relationship with Trump, Reed added, “They accuse us of being part of a cult of personality of the former president of the United States.”
“We’re part of a cult of only one personality; there is only one person that we worship,” Reed continued. “And that is the person of Jesus Christ.”
About a mile from the venue the same day, President Joe Biden, a Catholic Democrat, marked the Dobbs anniversary at a rally for legal abortion, signaling Biden will make the issue a key aspect of his campaign against his eventual Republican rival.
