Chris Christie Says He Would Not Sign A 6-Week National Abortion Ban
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday that he would not sign a six-week federal abortion ban into law if he were elected president.
Christie, who is vying for the 2024 Republican nomination, made the comments in an interview on “CNN This Morning,” telling host Phil Mattingly that there was “no consensus” around such a ban and that any decision should remain with the people.
“My view is this: I want the people, not the politicians, to make this decision. So let people vote in the states,” Christie said. “We see a great exercise in democracy going on all across this country.”
“We fought for 50 years to put this in the hands of the people, to say the federal government, in that case, the Supreme Court, had taken it out of the hands of the people and given them no voice,” the governor added, referring to the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a national right to abortion, which a more conservative court overturned last year. “Now people have a voice. So we’ve seen it.”
Let me be clear. I would not sign a six-week abortion ban.
While others will say one thing in Iowa and another in New Hampshire, I will not play politics. pic.twitter.com/te0sTwIw9p— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) November 28, 2023
Many Republican-led states have taken steps to limit access to abortion in the wake of last year’s reversal. In Tuesday’s interview, Christie criticized two of his 2024 Republican rivals’ stances on abortion: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who recently said she would have signed a six-week abortion ban in her home state, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a similar bill into law earlier this year.
“I think it makes it much more difficult in a general election for her,” Christie said of Haley’s remarks. “You could see when Gov. DeSantis signed that bill in Florida, it certainly affected his popularity with a broader electorate.”
Christie also lambasted Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who has called for abortion rights to be a national issue for the GOP during the presidential race.
“I want the American people to decide. That’s the right way to make this judgment,” he said. “And with all due respect to Ronna, she’s not running for president, and she’s never governed.”
