Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged her fellow Democrats to put the abortion issue front and center in their 2024 campaigns, arguing Republicans will lose big on the issue across the country.
Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday for an extensive interview that focused heavily on abortion and the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Pelosi said abortion remains a winning issue for Democrats, and one that helped stave of disaster for the party in the 2022 midterm elections.
“Everybody said we’re going to lose 30, 40 seats,” Pelosi said of the 2022 elections. “Last time we lost five and everybody says you had the wrong message. They were saying to me, you’re going to owe an apology to the members because Dobbs is in the rearview mirror. But it wasn’t. It was up front, and it is right up in front of women in our country.”
Pelosi’s interview came the same weekend former President Donald Trump declared himself the “most pro-life president” in U.S. history. Former Vice President Mike Pence also marked the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade by calling on all Republican 2024 presidential candidates to vow to push for a “minimum standard” 15-week abortion ban if elected.
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Pelosi went on to say that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey must be reversed “one way or another.”
“Our country has always been about expanding freedom. Until now, this court, ignoring its own precedent and the right of privacy in the Constitution,” Pelosi said. “So we have to reverse that. And Congress has the right to do that one way or another.”
Pelosi stopped short of calling on Democrats to pack the court, an idea some Democrats have endorsed since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation solidified a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.
“The president formed a commission. They did not recommend expansion of the court. That shouldn’t be the end of it, but there certainly should be term limits,” Pelosi stated.
Pelosi’s confidence comes in stark contrast to that of Pence, who argues Republicans will benefit from campaigning on abortion. He pointed to polling suggesting that a large majority of Americans support a 15-week ban.
“That would align American law with most of the countries in Europe that literally ban abortion after 12 to 15 weeks,” Pence said. “Our laws at the national level today are more aligned with North Korea, China and Iran than with other Western countries in Europe.”
