Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., reported desire to seek a national ban on abortion is “inconsistent” with what the GOP has been advocating for decades, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” the Republican governor said the goal for the party has been to give the power to decide the abortion legality issue back to the state level.
“I think that's inconsistent what we've been fighting for four decades which is that we wanted, the Roe versus Wade reversed, and the authority to return to the states,” he said.
“And so as a matter of principle, that's where it should be. If you look at a constitutional or a national standard, that goes against that thrust of the states having prerogative. And secondly, I think there's some constitutional issues of a national standard as well as to what is the authority under the Constitution to enact that.”
According to Hutchinson, the question of authority is a “fundamental point.”
“Everybody describes this as right,” he said of abortion. “If the court reverses Roe versus Wade, they're saying that the Constitution does not provide that, which returns it to the states. And to me that makes sense under the Constitution.”
“That’s where the vigorous debate is going to be. That is where we're going to face a lot of concerns on the compassion side,” he added.
“States are going to make different determinations of it. But the people are going to express through their representatives exactly the direction they want to go. And to me that makes sense and I think it makes sense under our Constitution.”
Hutchinson added the abortion controversy will go on no matter what the Supreme Court does.
“It’s divided our country and that division has been going on for decades and it will continue after whatever decision the Supreme Court renders,” he declared.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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