'Slap in the face': Mike Pence blasts Donald Trump for saying abortion restrictions should be up to states

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump's call to let states set their own abortion policy is drawing barbs from more than a few conservative Republicans who want a national ban – including his former vice president, Mike Pence.

"President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020," Pence shared on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the former president announced in a video on Truth Social that he believes states should choose their own abortion restrictions, a long awaited move as abortion rights have taken center stage in the 2024 presidential election.

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Trump did not immediately comment on Pence's criticism, but he responded to other Republican critics later in the day by saying that their calls for a national abortion ban would hurt him and other GOP candidates in the fall elections.

Democrats "love this Issue, and they want to keep it going for as long as Republicans will allow them to do so," Trump said in a Truth Social post about another fellow Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Democrats disregarded the GOP infighting, saying Trump is trying to fool voters about his opposition to abortion rights.

Trump's critics pointed out that his actions as president, particularly putting three new conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, led to the striking down of Roe v. Wade the landmark case that had once protected abortion rights. Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade as he seeks another term in the White House.

In his video statement on Monday, Trump praised the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, but he said it meant that the states should decide the issue.

"The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both," Trump said in the video. "And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state"

Pence, who publicly split with the former president in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, disagreed on Monday. He argued the Supreme Court returned the issue to both the states and "the American people" as a whole.

"The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law," Pence said.

But Pence wasn't alone in criticizing Trump on from the right. Graham, who has long supported a national ban on abortions, said that "I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at fifteen weeks because the child is capable of feeling pain, with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'A slap in the face': Mike Pence blasts Donald Trump's abortion stance