CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday night and asked him about the chances of a national abortion ban passing the House. Johnson replied he had no idea what Tapper was referring to before Tapper noted that Johnson himself had co-sponsored legislation to that effect.
“Let me just ask one quick question about policy. If Donald Trump does win and if the Republicans keep the majority. Will you bring the national abortion ban up for a vote?” Tapper asked.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about – national abortion ban. No. Listen, President Trump has said this very well. Look, I’m pro-life personally, but I have 434 colleagues. You have to build a political consensus. After cultural consensus, Breitbart famously observed that politics is downstream from culture, and there is no consensus at the moment on what to do at the federal level so that’s not on the legislative agenda,” Johnson replied, adding:
That’s not something that’s being planned. I think President Trump’s spoken very clearly about that. Our individual views are individual views, but we have a lot of work to build a cultural of life to, to go out as a party because we believe in that. To speak to that issue and to, to support families and young mothers who are in unplanned pregnancy situations and, and to support those, who are in need. That’s a role that, by the way, is cross-cultural.
I mean, we need to do that through the churches, through our communities at the state level, the local level. All of us have a role to play. And I think that’s the important thing we’ll focus on in the days ahead.
“You know when you said you didn’t know what I meant by a national abortion ban? I meant the Life Begins at Conception Act, which, you are a co-sponsor of. But let’s move on,” Tapper said before the two went on to discuss civility in the Congress.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
