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(NewsNation) Affirming what he called a consistent position on abortion, former Vice President Mike Pence hailed the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying the legal decision was sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs.

Pence made the comment Monday on The Hill on NewsNation, where he discussed a range of topics including abortion, a potential presidential 2024 run and the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He praised the work of the Trump administration appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who had all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that granted women the right to an abortion nationwide.

I couldnt be more proud to have been part of the administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs, Pence said.

Pences stance is in contrast to the majority of Americans, who disapprove of the high courts decision, according to Pew Research Center. In a July 2022 poll 62% of respondents said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion became a central focus of the 2022 midterm elections, particularly for Democrats who say the courts decision galvanized their voters. In the leadup to the election, 56% of Americans in another Pew poll said abortion was was very important to them. That number dropped to 41% among Republican voters.

You can watch a portion of Pences interview above.

You can watch the full interview with Pence here.

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Pence: Roe v. Wade belongs in ash heap of history - NewsNation Now

Washington Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination, said he would like to see a widely used abortion pill taken off shelves to "protect the unborn" and said he has "deep concerns" about the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug mifepristone more than 20 years ago.

In an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," Pence addressed the Supreme Court's order on Friday that preserved access to mifepristone as litigation over the FDA's 23-year-old approval of the medication continues.

"I'd like to see this medication off the market to protect the unborn," Pence told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa. "But I have deep concerns about the way the FDA went about approving mifepristone 20 years ago. I'm grateful that action is being taken in the courts to hold the FDA accountable to what the law requires in reviewing any medication that's made on the marketplace."

The Supreme Court's intervention in the dispute over mifepristone came after a federal judge in Texas blocked the FDA's 2000 approval of mifepristone on April 7. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the district court's decision, but rolled back a series of actions taken by the FDA since 2016 that relaxed the rules surrounding the drug and made it easier to access.

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The Justice Department and pharmaceutical company Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court to pause the lower court orders, and the justices agreed to do so Friday, maintaining the abortion drug's availability for now.

Pence said that the FDA should be held accountable under the law for how it approved mifepristone, and he criticized the Biden administration for lifting a policy in 2021 that required the abortion pill to be dispensed in-person, which allowed it to be sent by mail.

"For the sake of protecting the unborn, but also for the health and safety of women, I'm looking forward to this litigation continuing and holding the manufacturers of mifepristone accountable," Pence said.

Medication abortions have become increasingly common and accounted for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mifepristone is taken in combination with a second medicine, misoprostol, to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.

The FDA has argued in court papers that the risk of serious adverse events from mifepristone is extremely low when it is taken as directed, and serious complications associated with mifepristone are rare, involving just a fraction of a percent of cases. More than 5 million women have ended their pregnancies using mifepristone, according to court filings.

The dispute over the abortion pill's availability is the most significant to land before the Supreme Court since it overruled Roe v. Wade last June. Since then, more than a dozen states have imposed near-total bans or more stringent limits on abortions. In 15 states, restrictions are in place that make it harder for patients to obtain medication abortions, including by requiring the drugs to be provided by a physician, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.

The Supreme Court's decision to unwind the constitutional right to abortion was a significant victory for conservatives, who for decades have been pushing for Roe's reversal. But the issue of abortion is expected to be a major one in the 2024 election.

Last week, the head of the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America criticized former President Donald Trump for saying that abortion policies should be decided by the states, calling the position "morally indefensible for a self-proclaimed pro-life" presidential candidate.

Pence said he disagrees with Trump's assertion and abortion "isn't a states-only decision." Instead, the former vice president called for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

"The cause of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law is the calling of our time," he said. "The Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision last June gave the American people a new beginning for life. It returned the question of abortion to the states and to the American people. But it didn't just return it exclusively to the states."

Pence said he is proud that the three justices appointed to the Supreme Court during the Trump presidency all voted to overturn Roe. But he said that he believes now, Americans who oppose abortion rights want their elected officials to "seize every opportunity to put the interests of the unborn first and also, in equal measure, to demonstrate the generosity and compassion of the American people, toward women who've been caught up in abortion in the last 50 years, and women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy today,"

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Mike Pence says he wants abortion pill mifepristone "off the market" - CBS News

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Former US vice president Mike Pence has declined to condemn a spate of recent gun attacks on innocent bystanders, suggesting they were a consequence of rising crime rates.

In an interview with CBS's Face the Nation programme on Sunday, Mr Pence said the shooting of unarmed civilians by legal firearm owners should not require Americans to forfeit their gun rights.

The interviewer appeared to be referencing three recent incidents in which people who approached the wrong house or car were fired upon by the occupant, despite posing no threat.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot dead in rural New York after pulling into the wrong driveway, while Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager in Missouri, survived being shot by a white homeowner because he rang the wrong doorbell. Two cheerleaders in Texas were also shot when one of them mistakenly tried to enter the wrong car in a parking lot.

Asked what could be done to stem the fear and violence, Mr Pence said: "Well, our- our hearts go out to the families of lost loved ones in the incidents in- in Kansas City, and in upstate New York. I just can't imagine the pain that they're enduring in that tragedy.

"But," he continued, "tragedy should not require us to forfeit our liberty. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

"I don't know the facts of those cases, I'm confident that local law enforcement will move forward and apply the law in a proper way. But I can't help but suspect that this recent spate of tragedies is evidence of the fear that so many Americans are feeling about the crime wave besetting this country."

When the interviewer suggested there was "no excuse" for shooting at somebody who comes to your door, Mr Pence declined to agree or disagree, saying only that he [couldn't imagine] the circumstances" that would lead someone to do that and was sure local law enforcers would "hold people to a proper accounting".

Republicans have made claims of a Democratic "crime wave" central to their campaigning since 2021, reportedly spending around $157m on crime-related adverts in advance of last year's midterm elections.

The average US murder rate rose significantly between 2019 an 2021 before apparently falling in 2022, according to the FBI, with some cities seeing sharp spikes in homicides.

The rate of violent crime seems to have dropped slightly, but the FBI's data for 2021 is patchy and does not include major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Democrats contend that loose Republican gun regulations are feeding the problem, pointing to broadly higher murder rates in red states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Crystal Quade, leader of the Democratic minority in the Missouri House of Representatives, blamed the shooting of Ralph Yarl on extreme gun laws that have created a culture of fear... that turns neighbours against each other.

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Mike Pence makes excuses for shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis - The Independent

Mike Pence

Former vice-president, adrift of Trump and DeSantis in polls, makes less-than-bold presidential prediction to CBS

Mike Pence has not decided whether to enter the Republican presidential primary but if he does he will enter well before late June.

The former congressman, Indiana governor and vice-president to Donald Trump has been moving towards a run for months, releasing a memoir, visiting early voting states and establishing a political staff.

He made his less-than-bold prediction in an interview with CBS Face the Nation.

I think if we have an announcement to make, itll be well before late June, Pence said, adding: Anyone that would be serious about seeking the Republican nomination would need to be in this contest by June.

If we have an announcement to make it will be well before then.

Pence must perform a balancing act, distancing himself from Trump, the rival candidate whose supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged when they attacked the US Capitol, while trumpeting their achievements together in office.

It seems a doomed effort in a party and primary dominated by Trump, particularly as Pence recently dropped attempts to avoid testifying in the justice department investigation of the January 6 attack.

In March, in perhaps his boldest break from Trump, Pence told a Washington dinner: President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

On CBS, asked if he was leaning in or leaning away, Pence said: Well, Im here in Iowa.

His interviewer, Robert Costa, said: Sounds like youre leaning in.

Pence said: I would tell you that Im very humbled by the encouragement that were receiving. And I promise when we have something to announce, youll be among the first to know.

Pence spoke on Saturday at an event in Clive, Iowa, staged by the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a rightwing nonprofit.

Trump also addressed the event. Responding to a recent rebuke from a leading anti-abortion group, which called his opposition to a federal abortion ban morally indefensible, the former president highlighted the decision by which a supreme court including three justices he named removed the right to abortion last year.

Those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life, Trump said, in a speech delivered by video. Nobody thought it was going to happen. They thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for exactly that period of time, 50 years.

The Roe v Wade decision which protected the right to abortion came in 1973 49 years before it was overturned by Dobbs v Jackson.

The Iowa caucuses will kick off the Republican primary in February. Ten months out, Trump enjoys clear leads in polling.

The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has maintained a hold on second place without declaring a run.

But DeSantiss numbers are tanking. The governor faces his own difficulties at state level while Trump surfs a wave of support generated by his criminal indictment in New York, over a hush money payment to an adult film star, and other forms of legal jeopardy including a civil rape trial due to open next week.

Trump denies wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of Democratic witch-hunts: a potent combination for attracting donations and support. On Sunday, an NBC poll said 68% of Republican voters thought Trump was the victim of politically motivated attacks and it was important to support him.

Pence is contesting third place with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who declared her run in February. Both are at around 4% support.

The other mainstream Republican to have declared, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, struggles to break 1%. The South Carolina senator Tim Scott has all but declared a run but remains all but invisible in polling.

Polls do not provide uniformly good news for Trump. A poll this week from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago said 44% of Republicans (and 70% of Americans) do not want him to be the nominee.

The Dispatch, a conservative anti-Trump site, said Pence was planning a launch in Indiana, followed by another trip to Iowa.

Pence, the site said, plans to campaign as the traditional conservative he is, eschewing momentary cultural flashpoints that inflame passions and attract eyeballs [to] instead focus on wonky topics fraught with political peril, like how to address the ballooning federal debt and reforming popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.

On abortion, Pence is eager to highlight his opposition and his commitment to signing federal legislation limiting the procedure.

Such positions have proved unpopular with general election voters. The Dispatch also said Pence planned to aim fire directly at Trump.

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Mike Pence will enter presidential race well before late June if he does at all - The Guardian US

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Indianapolis hosted the National Rifle Association convention for the third year in a row April 14-16. The annual conference, held at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, drew an NRA-estimated attendance of more than 77,000 people, according to the Indianapolis Star. Speakers at the conventions leadership forum on April 14 included former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, according to the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum website. Video messages from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott also were shown at the forum.

Indianapolis likes to build itself as a convention-friendly city, according to University of Indianapolis Associate Professor of Political Science Greg Shufeldt, and 2023 is the last year Indianapolis is under contractual obligation to host the NRAs convention. Shufeldt said that with Indiana being considered a Republican state, and with most people likely being supporters of the Second Amendment, Indianapolis would be a favorable place to hold the convention. Shufeldt said the NRAs featuring of speakers at the leadership forum such as former President Trump and former Vice President Pence highlights the importance of the NRA in the Republican party.

As we think about the 2024 Republican primary, people might try to distinguish themselves between being more conservative or moderate, Shufeldt said. But every Republican thats running for president is going to be there. Theres not a Republican [politician] that is speaking out against gun rights. (The New York Times stated in an article that, Polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans support some restrictions on firearms, but G.O.P. lawmakers fear they would pay a steep political price for embracing them.)

The convention began Friday, April 14, with the NRA Foundations Annual National Firearms Law Seminar, and continued through the NRA Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum at the end of the first day, according to the NRA convention schedule. Saturday, the second day of the convention, included more seminars and workshops, according to the schedule, as well as exhibit halls where different businesses showcased their products. The convention concluded on Sunday with a National Prayer Breakfast and more workshops and seminars.

With high-profile speakers comes high-security precautions. The U.S. Secret Service required that all media representatives attending the NRA ILA Leadership Forum leave their equipment in Exhibit Hall A for a security sweep before going through additional security measures to regain access. The line to see the speakers spanned down the convention center, and soon the room was filled with thousands of NRA members and media representatives.

Gov. Eric Holcomb IN

Holcomb discussed the State of Indianas infrastructure, state tax cuts through budgeting formulas and ways in which Indiana is a prominent supporter of the Second Amendment. Indiana hosts multiple outdoor recreational opportunities, Holcomb said, as well as the NRA National Marksmanship Competition. In 2024, Holcomb said, Indiana will host the World University Shooting Sport Championship.

Sen. Mike Braun IN

Braun mentioned the Greenwood Park Mall shooting in Greenwood, Ind. last July 17, and the patron who shot the attacker while concealed carrying his firearm. The Biden-Harris Administrations enacting a nationwide vaccination mandate for businesses down to 100 employees was an overreach, Braun said, that damaged the country during the pandemic. He said the federal government is trampling on the Constitution and attempting to replace the nuclear family, which he aims to work against.

Former Vice President Mike Pence

Pence spoke about the Trump-Pence administrations four years in office and about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. A conservative majority on the Supreme Court gave America the opportunity for the right to life, Pence said, and last June they ruled to eliminate the license requirement to carry concealed weapons in New York in the Bruen Decision. Under the current White House administration, attacks through gun violence are the products of a lack of crime control, Pence said, and that gun confiscation endangers lives. Shootings in the U.S. have resulted from a decline in mental health and a reduction in institutionalizing the mentally ill, Pence said. He said placing police resource officers in every public and private space in America would put a stop to the violence.

Former President Donald Trump

Trump said that releasing criminals and abolishing borders are part of the Biden-Harris Administrations agenda, and interference is part of what the Democrats want for the upcoming election. Trump showed the audience the current Republican presidential candidate polls in different states (which were shown to be in his favor, according to InteractivePolls Twitter) and discussed his signing of the Right to Try law, which allows terminally ill patients to access experimental drugs. Three Supreme Court justices were confirmed under the Trump-Pence Administration, as were 300 federal judges, Trump said. He said Bidens handling of classified documents, as well as 1,850 boxes of unaccounted for documents in Chinatown, revealed Biden obtained millions of dollars from China. Trump said his plans for office include restoring safety to the nation from gang violence and increasing security in schools. He said the shooting that occurred in Nashville, Tenn., on March 27 was a result of the reduction in school security and a mental health, cultural, social and spiritual problem that could be offset by arming school teachers. Part of his administrations plan to address mental health in the country, Trump said, is to direct the FDA to create an independent, outside panel to examine transgender hormone therapy and whether its effects upon increases in depression, aggression and violence. Trump also said that genetically engineered cannabis and other narcotics are causing psychotic breaks. In closing, Trump discussed the damage done by the Biden-Harris Administration, which he said has caused the nation to decline, and how in 2024 the Trump Administration will make the country great again.

Overall, many of the speakers highlighted similar aspects in their platforms, including a heavy emphasis on mental health crises across the country and the need for American citizens to bear arms in order for other rights listed in the U.S. Constitution to be enforced. Ramaswamy mentioned tensions between China and Taiwan during his remarks, and named Chinese leader Xi Jinping directly to support his position.

If you want to stop Xi Jinping from invading Taiwan, put a gun in every Taiwanese household and have them defend themselves, Ramaswamy said during his remarks. Lets see what Xi Jinping does then. Thats what it means to be an actual American.

Paul Rak, a marketing consultant and lifetime NRA member, attended the convention with his wife and shed some light on why he attended the convention.

Ive been a member for probably 20 to 30 years, Rak said, and really, [we came] because it was in the area. Were from Illinois and just hadnt been able to come out in a number of years. So I just thought it would be interesting. And [my wife] really wanted to see Trump.

Rak said that he believes gun owners have a right to self-defense and that he felt comfortable at the NRA convention because he was around people who know what they are doing. He also mentioned the Greenwood Park Mall shooting that occurred this past July.

It [comes] back to some people doing violence and so forth, Rak said. [In] Indiana, I think, sometime within the last year, there was a shooting in a mall. And guns were not supposed to be there. But there was a good guy with a gun who stopped the perpetrator.

Protesters during the conference were present across from the convention center. Retirees Kerry Worthington and Elizabeth McQuinn were among the protesters. Worthington said that what brought him to the convention was his anti-AR-15 beliefs and opinion that people should have permits to carry firearms.

We think you have to have a permit, Worthington said. You have to have a permit to drive a car. . . . You cant lease a car at 25, [but] you can buy an AR-15 at 18. And you think that makes sense?

McQuinn said what brought her to the convention center was that she was offended by the Indiana General Assembly being used as a platform to publicize the NRA, when the assembly passed a special resolution to honor the NRA and its Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre.

Its a poorly run organization, McQuinn said. And to think that our statehouse, dominated by the Republican supermajority, would do that, I think, is unconscionable.

Shufeldt said that having the convention in Indianapolis provided an opportunity for students who might not like Indianapolis hosting the NRA, in light of recent shootings, to take part in interest groups and organizations opposed to the association. He said that for those who support the NRA and the Second Amendment, the convention was likely a good sign and an opportunity to get involved and learn more about the organization.

Gun laws change pretty quickly, Shufeldt said. And . . . not all of our students are Hoosier residents. I would encourage students to be mindful of what gun laws are in their home state, realizing that they change from state to state. So if you do carry a firearm, be mindful of that if youre going back and forth. Likewise, if you dont like the laws in your home state. . . state governments have some power to do something about it and other state governments might be more responsive than ours.

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Indianapolis hosts the 2023 National Rifle Association convention ... - The Reflector Online