Ex-Vice President Pence Hopeful Supreme Court Will End Abortion Rights
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is “hopeful” that the new conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court will soon end abortion rights and “restore the sanctity of life.”
He spoke Thursday at the ‘Budapest Demographic Summit in Hungary, where government and church leaders discussed ways to reverse the falling birthrates in the Western world.
Pence said he’s praying that the Supreme Court’s conservative judges appointed during his and President Donald J. Trump’s administration would make anti-abortion moves.
“It is our hope and our prayer that in the coming days, a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States will take action to restore the sanctity of life at the center of American law,” he said.
He spoke after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently allowed a Texas law banning most abortions from going into effect. The court is due next to consider a Mississippi ban on most abortions after 15 weeks.
Anti-abortion activists hope that the court will use that case to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling which declared abortion a woman’s constitutional right.
PRO-LIFE POLICIES
Pence made clear that the United States should return to what he views as pro-life policies. He said he shared concerns expressed by the conservative leaders gathered in Budapest, Hungary’s capital.
“We see a crisis that brings us here today, a crisis that strikes at the very heart of civilization itself. The erosion of the nuclear family is marked by declining marriage rates, rising divorce, widespread abortion, and plummeting birth rates,” Pence stressed.
The Budapest Demographic Summit, first held in 2015 and took place every two years, has become a platform for leaders denouncing illegal migration and urging families to have more children.
Hungary is also to host next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, an annual gathering of primarily U.S. conservative activists and politicians, Hungarian media reported.
The country of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has become a political model for right-wing leaders and commentators who admire his hard-line opposition to illegal migration and his support for conservative social values.
Tucker Carlson, the popular host on the right-wing Fox News Channel, spent a week broadcasting from Budapest in August. Carlson praised Hungary under Orbán‘s rule and visited by helicopter to a fence along the country’s southern border.
CRITICS CONCERNED
Critics say conservative admirers overlook the prime minister’s perceived authoritarian style, including his consolidation of Hungary’s media and growing influence over the judiciary and other institutions.
Orbán is also under European Union pressure that Brussels views discrimination against minorities, ranging from LGBT people to asylum seekers.
The prime minister has denied wrongdoing, saying he is pro-family and wants to defend his nation’s and Europe’s Christian roots.
Pence praised how abortion rates have fallen under Orban’s leadership. And he expressed hope that the U.S. would see a similar trend under the 300 conservative judges to the federal courts appointed by the previous administration, including three new justices to the Supreme Court.
“We may well have a fresh start in the cause of life in America,” Pence told the gathering.
Observers noted that he is positioning himself as a potential presidential candidate who could appeal to his Evangelical Christian base and Trump supporters.
PRAISING PENCE
Orbán, the Hungarian leader who faces re-election next year, lamented that conservatives including Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu had faced electoral losses recently.
But addressing Pence, he said: “Vice President, we wish you a comeback as soon as possible.”
Orbán also claimed that Hungary, under his rule since 2010, has used the state “to shape demographic processes,” restricting migration and using tax breaks to ensure that having children is beneficial economically for families.
Other leaders from the region also addressed the forum, including Serbian President Alexander Vucic, who voiced his concerns about Europe’s declining population growth relative to the rest of the world.
If things continue as they are, he warned, “within 30 years Nigeria — just one African country — will have more inhabitants than the entire European Union, more inhabitants than the United States of America.”
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