Ron DeSantis softens abortion position for New Hampshire audience

Ron DeSantis spent the last two legislative sessions tightening Florida’s abortion law, but you wouldn’t know it from his choice-friendly comments in New Hampshire, where he again stressed he didn’t want to Make America Florida when it comes to reproductive rights.

“I’m conscious of the diversity of opinion in the United States, New England is different than Wisconsin is different than Georgia. You know, but at the end of the day, you know, we do want to promote a culture of life,” DeSantis said, adding that it’s up to Congress and not him to tighten national laws against the procedure.

“The Congress is the one that actually, you know, does the legislation. I think if you looked at what’s happened there, there’s not been a lot of productive things that have been done across a wide variety of issues,” the Governor added, during an interview on WMUR’s “Conversations with the Candidate.”

The Governor continues to soften his abortion message as a candidate.

On Fox News “Special Report” during an interview last week with Bret Baier, the Florida Governor again explained why President DeSantis wouldn’t push for a national version of the state’s Heartbeat Protection Act.

“Now, I also acknowledge and understand that in my region of the country and down in the Southeast, it’s a little bit different than where we are up here in New England. I don’t think New England states would probably, you know, adopt something along the lines of a heartbeat (bill),” DeSantis told Baier.

The Governor made a similar claim during another cable interview on July 20, except about New York.

“I think that in states where you’ve had the ability to make improvements and to add pro-life protections, I applaud states that have done that, but we have a big, diverse country. I acknowledge that and I’m not suggesting that somehow New York is necessarily going to follow Iowa’s lead on that. I think you’re going to see differences,” DeSantis said on “Fox & Friends.”

Previously, he said that California wouldn’t go for a Florida-style law.

During a May appearance on “Fox News Tonight,” DeSantis said “there’s just a practical reality that the country is divided on the issue.”

“And so the question is, you know, how are you going to be able to save, you know, more lives? Some of this is a matter of strategy, some of it is a matter of, you know, what could you do to be able to advance the ball forward?” he added. “Clearly in California, you know, you are going to have very, very hostile views.”

DeSantis’ abortion positioning has not gone unnoticed on the right. The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group has groused that the Governor’s belief that the pro-life movement is a “bottom-up” movement is “unacceptable.”