Josh Hawley Claims He Opposes ‘Nationwide’ Abortion Ban, But Wants ‘Federal Restrictions’

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The Missouri senator said during a debate he doesn’t “support a nationwide ban,” despite backing a national 15-week abortion ban

Conservative Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley claimed Friday he opposes a “nationwide ban” on abortion, before immediately saying he wants to see “reasonable federal restrictions.”

One such federal restriction, he said during a Missouri Senate candidate debate on Friday, should be “when the baby is capable of feeling pain” — a phrase mirroring the legislation he co-sponsored to impose a national, 15-week abortion ban.

Hawley also slammed a measure on the ballot this November to restore abortion access in Missouri, which has a near-total abortion ban at any time during pregnancy, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. He falsely claimed the measure would “overturn our ban in the state on transgender surgeries for minors.”

The senator and former state attorney general has long described himself as “100 percent pro-life.” In 2021, Hawley said abortion is murder, and compared it to the “moral evil of slavery.” But as abortion bans have become reality in America and politically controversial, he’s pretended to take a middle-ground position on abortion, without giving an inch.

In May 2022, as it was becoming clear the conservative-dominated Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights, Hawley said he would not support “a federal ban.” He argued the issue should be left to the states — but also that “Congress can look for areas where there’s national consensus and act on those.”

Several months later, Hawley signed onto the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children From Late-Term Abortions Act, legislation to ban abortion nationally at 15 weeks of pregnancy. Last year, he called on Republican presidential candidates to support a 15-week national ban, presenting it as a middle-of-the-road view. “I think that there is a national consensus on that,” he said.

Despite supporting a national ban at 15 weeks, during Friday’s debate, Hawley claimed, “I don’t support a nationwide ban.” He quickly nodded to his actual position: “I do support reasonable federal restrictions — limits on abortion, like partial-birth abortion, like when the baby is capable of feeling pain.”

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The legislation that Hawley co-sponsored would create a national 15-week ban, and permit states to enact further restrictions — so bright red states could maintain their near-total abortion bans, and the procedure would be banned in the rest of the country at 15 weeks.

Missouri bans abortion at any time during pregnancy, and contains no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. While the ban has an exception for medical emergencies, a recent letter signed by hundreds of doctors in the state suggests this is not altogether helpful. “Missourians are being denied abortions and forced to continue life-threatening pregnancies, risking their health and lives,” they wrote. “Doctors can’t treat patients with heartbreaking pregnancy complications until they are on the brink of death. Otherwise, they could be put in jail.”

Though Hawley has said he supports exceptions for rape and incest, he has actively opposed a ballot amendment in Missouri to restore abortion access in the state. He did so again on Friday, claiming the amendment would overturn the state’s ban on “transgender surgeries for minors,” adding: “They talk about reproductive health, but what it really does is it allows transgender surgeries for minors without parental consent.”

This is false, as Hawley’s Democratic opponent Lucas Kunce pointed out Friday. “It has nothing to do with sex-change surgeries,” said Kunce. “He sees mandated sex-change surgeries around every single corner, because he thinks that he’s gonna rile people up that way and actually win the election. It’s not true.”

Hawley doubled down, arguing that liberal groups that support abortion access say “reproductive health care means gender affirming surgeries, it means hormone treatments, it means puberty blockers for minors.” In actuality, Missouri’s amendment would simply allow abortions until fetal viability, or around 24 weeks of pregnancy, as was previously the law of the land.

Both Hawley and his wife, Erin, played key roles in convincing the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, paving the way for Missouri’s near-total abortion ban to go into effect. Erin Hawley is a lawyer at the Alliance Defending Freedom, which said it helped draft the Mississippi abortion law that the high court used to end the federal right to an abortion. She reportedly helped the Mississippi attorney general’s office prepare its legal briefs in the case. Josh Hawley, for his part, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court urging justices to overrule Roe.

The senator had previously demanded then-President Donald Trump only nominate justices to the Supreme Court who openly opposed Roe. Hawley also voted against legislation to codify Roe’s federal abortion protections before the Supreme Court overturned its landmark 1973 decision.