Former Vice President Mike Pence says he hopes that the five conservative justices on the nine-member Supreme Court have the “courage of their convictions” to strike down the nearly half century old landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
The former vice president, a friend to social conservatives who’s long pushed for restrictions on abortion, made his comments Thursday in a speech to several hundred congregants gathered at Lakewood Baptist Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for a National Day of Prayer service.
After asking for prayers for all federal elected officials and members of the nation’s highest court, Pence said to loud applause “let’s especially pray that the five justices listed in the majority opinion leaked this week will have the courage of their convictions to right a historic wrong.”
The former vice president’s comments come in the wake of the unprecedented leak of an initial draft opinion that indicates the high court’s conservative majority is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, a development that rocked the political world.
Following his appearance, Pence told reporters that he hoped the likely overturning of the abortion ruling would give the nation “a fresh start on life.”
And he emphasized such a move by the high court “will return the question on this profound moral issue to the states and the American people where it belongs.”
“I really do believe when it comes to issues that are closest and nearest and dearest to American people like the sanctity of human life, that those are best decided by the people and their elected representatives,” he emphasized.
Pence noted that “we’ll be working in states around the country to advance the cause of life once they do.”
The visit to South Carolina — the third state to vote in the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar — was the former vice president’s second in less than a week.
Pence, who has not ruled out a run for the White House in 2024 and who’s making all the early moves needed to mount a national campaign, delivered remarks last Saturday at Columbia International University, a private, conservative, biblically focused school located in South Carolina’s capital city. Word that Pence would be traveling to the Palmetto State to deliver the commencement remarks was first reported by Fox News in February.
Following his appearance at the National Day of Prayer service in Rock Hill, the former vice president was set to address a dinner on behalf of the Carolina Pregnancy Center, a Christian facility that provides counseling, supplies and adoption services to women with unplanned pregnancies.
The center, located in Spartanburg in the state’s conservative northwest corner, has become a must-stop for some GOP presidential hopefuls in recent election cycles, as they’ve flocked to South Carolina to showcase their pro-life credentials in front of the state’s socially conservative Republican primary voters.
Ahead of Pence’s visit on Thursday, the Democratic National Committee took aim at the former vice president for what they argued was his “extreme, unpopular, and anti-choice agenda, and his long history of attacking women’s health care and reproductive rights that led to this disastrous decision.”
This article was published by FoxNews.com.
Our world is in a crisis. You can feel it. The future looks grim—more expensive, more divided, more uncertain, and more dangerous than at any time in living memory. Things seem to be spinning out of control.
What can we do in the face of such a crisis? Looking back, what has tended to bring about the most change in history? You might think it was scientific discoveries, from people like Copernicus or Newton. Or perhaps it was inventions, like Gutenberg’s printing press or Edison’s incandescent light bulb. In our lifetimes, you might point to the personal computer or the Internet or the smartphone.
Would you be surprised if I told you none of those discoveries or inventions has had the greatest impact on the course of history? The most earth-shattering, revolutionary act ever undertaken in history is—when you pray.
When you pray, you get to speak to your Creator. You don’t have to know any incantations or code words. You can talk to Him about anything. In the simple act of speaking to God, you can ask God to bring the hope and renewal our world yearns for but can never produce for itself.
As theologian Karl Barth said: “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” What could be more revolutionary than that?
God has worked through prayer in our nation before. It can start with just one person’s faithfulness. I am reminded of the story of Jeremiah Lanphier, a clothing merchant in New York City.
In 1857, he started a prayer meeting in Manhattan that drew just six businessmen to its first meeting. But Lanphier was undaunted. He kept holding meetings to pray each week. The numbers who gathered kept multiplying.
Then, just a few weeks later, the stock market crashed and New York banks closed for two months. This led to a dramatic increase in the businessmen who wanted to pray. Soon more than 10,000 businessmen were gathering daily to pray in New York City, and similar movements in other cities began. By 1859, it is estimated that one out of every twelve lost Americans had turned to faith in Jesus Christ.
We don’t know what God may do. But we can ask. Prayer isn’t a get-out-of-your-problems free card. But we do know there are some prayers that God always answers.
When we pray, God promises to give us what Saint Augustine called “the framework of true desires.” He will align our hearts with His, teaching us to love what really matters and focus on what is most important.
God can teach us to see the world through the lens of His power and hope. That would be quite a revolution—the kind of revolution that each of us needs today.
This article was published by FoxNews.com.
Former Vice President Mike Pence anticipates that the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade will spark “renewed enthusiasm” for Republicans in the midterm elections, and predicts voters will elect state-level officials who share their respect for the sanctity of life.
During an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday, Pence said the “right to life” issue will animate Republican voters more so than Democratic voters. The former vice president’s remarks come just days after a draft court opinion overturning landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade leaked out of the Supreme Court.
“I honestly believe that there is no more important issue in the life of the nation than the sanctity of life,” Pence said. “And so for me, that’s that’s where this debate lies,” Pence said.
“Now with regard to its impact on elections, I must tell you that, look, the failed policies of the Biden administration are almost too many to recount. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the emboldening of the enemies of freedom around the world. The inflation at a 40-year high, the worst border crisis in history, a crime wave in our cities. All are a testament to the failed left-wing policies of the Biden administration.”
“And I fully expect that voters are going to carry their strong feelings about that into the voting booth.”
“But also, I think that should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and return the question of abortion to the states, that I think it is likely that voters around the country are going to be looking for women and men of principle at the state level in renewed ways. Looking at governors, looking at who represents them in their state house. And in light of who shares their values, particularly when it comes to the right to life.”
“So there’s much talk about on the left about this animating their voters. But I believe that there are, there are tens of millions of Americans who cherish the right to life, who will vote with renewed enthusiasm for governors and state legislators if they know that they then have the ability to shape laws that will respect the sanctity of life.”
I hope and pray the draft opinion becomes the published majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, and that those five justices have the courage of their convictions to send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs,” Pence told Fox News Digital, saying the states is where the abortion debate belongs.
He continued, “Now, that will not end the debate over abortion. It will simply open up a new battlefield in the cause of life.”
“I’m heartened by more than half of the states of the country that have been advancing pro-life legislation. But I would welcome the opportunity to make the case in all 50 states and all the territories of this country, and that we must restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law. But I think we need to meet this moment with resolve and compassion.”
“I frankly believe that there’s been a dual tragedy the last 50 years in abortion since Roe v. Wade. One is that we’ve lost we’ve lost 62 million boys and girls, lives of incalculable value that were ended before their birth. But there’s also been generations of women who’ve endured regret and heartache that can last a lifetime. And so I think we need to meet this moment with resolve.”
“We need to pray the Supreme Court has the courage of their convictions. But I also think we need to bathe this moment in compassion for those who were caught up in the abortion culture in the last 50 years. Let them know that there is redemption. There is grace. And there’s healing for our country.”
This article was published by FoxNews.com.
