Former Vice President Mike Pence is expanding his involvement in the anti-abortion movement’s work ahead of the 2022 midterms, contributing $500,000 to an existing multimillion-dollar ad campaign run by the largest national anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Why it matters: Prominent movement leaders are already taking notice of the Republicans who’ve been their strongest and most vocal allies after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — and the anti-abortion constituency will be an important one for any 2024 GOP hopeful.
Details: Pence’s political group, Advancing American Freedom Foundation, has committed to giving $500,000 to SBA’s $2.5 million digital ad campaign, Axios has learned.
- The ads — which feature family practitioners highlighting “scientific advances that reveal the humanity of unborn children” — will run in eight battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Between the lines: It’s only a two-week ad campaign, but Pence’s involvement is another signal of anti-abortion leaders gravitating more toward him than former President Trump on this issue.
- His unequivocal public and private embrace of the impending Roe decision contrasted with Donald Trump's private concerns about the political risks to Republicans, as Axios' Jonathan Swan reported.
- Pence has called for a nationwide abortion ban after the Dobbs ruling and Dannenfelser has vowed to help limit abortion "in every state and in every legislature, including the Congress.”
- Other potential 2024 Republican candidates haven’t gone as far, but the issue will continue to divide the primary field.
What they’re saying: “Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged, and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in pregnancy resource centers to every state in America,” Pence said in a statement shared with Axios.
