Former Vice President Mike Pence said he only will consider pro-life supporters to fill cabinet positions should he serve as president.
Pence, who's among a group of Republican candidates trailing far behind former President Donald Trump in 2024 GOP presidential nomination polls, spoke Thursday at the Napa Institute Summer Conference in California.
Saying "personnel is policy," the former vice president said a Pence administration cabinet would reflect a pro-life stance.
"We will only consider pro-life Americans for cabinet positions in a Pence administration, especially we will only consider pro-life Americans to lead HHS [Department of Health and Human Services], CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] — I promise you that," he told conference attendees.
Pence appeared at the Napa Institute to discuss the role of faith in public life.
He credited the Trump-Pence administration with appointing "300 conservatives to our federal courts at every level" and "three of the justices to the majority on the Supreme Court that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs."
Pence added that the court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which returned the issue of abortion to the states, was only "the end of the beginning."
"Frankly, it may take us as long to restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law as it took to overturn Roe v. Wade," said Pence, who again called for a "minimum national standard of 15 weeks" for abortions.
He also called for a ban on chemical or surgical gender-transition procedures for anyone under 18.
Pence ridiculed President Joe Biden for saying he would defend "the God-given right of men to compete in women's sports."
"Let me be clear on this — participation in women's sports should be limited to gender at birth as a matter of fairness and common sense," Pence said.
Pence, a congressman and Indiana governor before serving as vice president, said more people of "conviction and faith" are needed in public life.
"The truth is what the world needs most now in these challenging times, is not one more brilliant investor, or lawyer or even politician," he said. "What the world needs today is men and women of deep conviction and faith, who will boldly live out their faith in the public square, and that's the men and woman of the Napa Institute."
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