"Pro-life" Cheney says GOP-led states' post-Roe moves "not sustainable"
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris (left) sits with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for a town hall in Royal Oak, Michigan, on Monday. Photo: Sarah Rice/Getty Images
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during an event with Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday criticized GOP-led states' moves to curtail women's rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections.
Why it matters: Anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America gave Cheney an A rating for her congressional voting record, saying she had "stood up against the pro-abortion agenda of the Biden-Harris administration."
- Harris has pledged to expand federal abortion rights protections if she's elected president next month.
What she's saying: "There are many of us around the country who have been pro-life, but who have watched what's going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need," Cheney said at the event in Royal Oak, Michigan.
- "This is not an issue that we're seeing break down across party lines, but I think we're seeing people come together to say: what has happened to women," Harris' top Republican surrogate added.
- "When women are facing situations where they can't get the care they need, where in places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women's medical records … that's not sustainable for us as a country and it has to change."
Zoom in: Cheney noted that former President Trump "at one point called for criminal penalties" — in reference to him saying at a 2016 town hall that "there has to be some form of punishment" for women if abortion were made illegal.
- "Like on so many other issues, you just can't count on him," Cheney added. "You can't trust him. We have seen who he is. We have seen the cruelty. America deserves much better," she said.
- "If people are uncertain, if people are thinking, 'Well, you know, I'm a conservative, I don't know that I can support Vice President Harris,' I would say, 'I don't know if anybody is more conservative than I am,'" Cheney said.
- "I understand the most conservative value there is: to defend the Constitution."
Flashback: After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade's federal abortion protections in 2022, Cheney tweeted: "I have always been strongly pro-life. Today's ruling by the Supreme Court returns power to the states and the people of the states to address the issue of abortion under state law."
Zoom out: Cheney and Harris were holding three separate events in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Monday as the election remains too close to call with two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 vote.
Go deeper... Scoop: Mike Johnson's tense text messages with Liz Cheney
