Dear Commons Community,

Harvard University announced Thursday that it is reinstituting standardized tests as a requirement for admission beginning in fall 2025, joining other colleges that are again mandating tests for those hoping to enter the schools.

In June 2020, Harvard began a temporary test-optional policy under which students could apply to the college without submitting scores. The change was adopted as access to standardized testing during the pandemic became limited.

Other schools like Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and MIT are also again requiring standardized tests for those seeking admission.  As reported by The Associated Press.

Harvard had initially said it was going to maintain its test-optional policy through the entering class of the fall of 2026.

Under the change announced Thursday, students applying to Harvard for fall 2025 admission will be required to submit standardized test scores from the SAT or ACT exams to satisfy the testing component of the application.

In what the school called “exceptional cases” when applicants are unable to access SAT or ACT testing, other eligible tests will be accepted, including Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams.

School officials said test scores are weighed along with information about an applicant’s experiences, skills, talents, and contributions to their communities, as well as their academic qualifications in relation to the norms of their high school, and personal recommendations.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi Hoekstra said in a news release that standardized tests are a means for all students — regardless of background or life experience — to provide information that is predictive of success in college,

“In short, more information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range,” Hoekstra said.

The school said that all along it welcomed those seeking admission to submit test scores if they had them. Most of those accepted into the college during the past four years submitted test scores, according to the school.

The school also pointed to research that they said found that standardized tests are a valuable tool to identify promising students at less well-resourced high schools, particularly when paired with other academic credentials.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Goddard College in Vermont had done everything it could think to increase revenue and lower costs. It rented out building after building on campus. Turned the dining hall into a for-profit restaurant. Announced the institution would go fully online, with no students on its campus.

It didn’t work. Earlier this week, the college’s board announced it would close at the end of the academic year. “The board really had no choice,” President Dan Hocoy told The Chronicle of Higher Education. “We just couldn’t continue with 200 students.”

Goddard, known for its liberal education, has struggled for years with enrollment losses and its finances. According to audited financial statements, the college lost $535,000 last year. Its overall expense budget was $7.5 million, but it had less than $900,000 in its endowment, the records show. In 2021, its accreditor put it on a notice of concern around its finances.

“The demographic issues all of higher education is facing just became insurmountable for us,” Hocoy said. Vermont, which has seen other small private colleges close in recent years, is aging rapidly and has fewer and fewer college-age residents, Hocoy said. And even those who were attending Goddard weren’t necessarily living on campus and paying dorm fees.

In January 2024, the college announced it would move to an online-only model to cut costs. Before then, about two-thirds of its students had attended classes virtually. “That was just being responsive to our students,” Hocoy said.

The demographic issues all of higher education is facing just became insurmountable for us.

Goddard is also one of dozens of institutions across the nation with a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, often considered “last resort” measures tied to construction projects. Goddard’s loan was for $2.1 million in 2016, for a biomass heating plant. It secured the loan with mortgages on several campus buildings. Typically, the USDA would take over the campus if the college closed, but Goddard’s board hopes to sell its properties and use the proceeds to pay creditors, including the USDA, Hocoy said. The USDA loan is the college’s only long-term debt, financial records show.

The 220 Goddard students, down from 1,900 at its peak in the 1970s, will have a chance to finish their education at Prescott College, in Arizona, at the same tuition rate they had been paying at Goddard, the institution said in its closing announcement.

“We are committed to ensuring that Goddard students continue to have access to a high-quality education and thrive academically,” said Barbara Morris, president of Prescott, in the closing announcement. “Prescott College shares Goddard’s commitment to progressive education, and we are honored to welcome Goddard students into our community.”

There are about 90 faculty and staff members at Goddard. The college is setting up career fairs in the coming months.

Goddard’s closure is the latest in several closure announcements in recent days, including Oak Point University, in Illinois, Birmingham-Southern College, in Alabama, Notre Dame College, in Ohio, and Fontbonne University, in Missouri, all of which cited enrollment and financial issues.

Tough times for small, private colleges.

Tony

Joni Ernst.    Courtesy of MSNBC News

Dear Commons Community,

Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst has weighed in on the decision of the Arizona Supreme Court to allow an 1864 near-total abortion ban to take effect.

The controversial law allows exceptions only if the pregnant person’s life is deemed at risk and includes jail time for providers who perform the medical procedure.

In an interview with Fox Business, Ernst suggested that the court’s decision is a direct result of Republican efforts to get Roe v. Wade overturned, making special note of former President Donald Trump’s role in the outcome.

“I am a mom, I am a brand new grandma, and I support life,” Ernst told Larry Kudlow. “And Senate Republicans, the GOP and President Trump really worked hard to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Ernst said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs in June 2022 means that abortion will be dealt with on the state level going forward.

“We returned that back to the states; that is the law of the land with that Supreme Court decision, so the states are handling that,” Ernst said. “But again, we worked very hard to get this result. Now, the states will take that up.”

But on Wednesday former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election, tried to distance himself from Arizona high court’s ruling.

Asked if the decision “went too far,” Trump told reporters: “Yeah they did, and that will be straightened out.”

However, Arizona Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats in the state to get the law repealed in both chambers of the legislature, prompting outrage.

“By their actions, the message from this chamber is that they are so pro-life they will kill you,” Democratic state Sen. Anna Hernandez wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Parties now have two weeks to file legal claims in hopes of stopping the law from taking hold.

Despite Trump’s opposition to the Arizona legislation, his position on the issue of abortion remains murky as he recognizes the GOP’s stance on abortion has proven to be unpopular with voters.

In a video statement Monday meant to clarify his position on abortion ahead of the 2024 presidential race, Trump said he supports leaving abortion up to the states to decide as he took direct credit for setting the state for the reversal of Roe by appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices during his time in office.

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump said “no” when asked if he would sign a national abortion ban if he returned to the White House. Still, he didn’t specifically rule out implementing a back door ban. Additionally, Trump made no reference to how he would handle a bill imposing a nationwide ban on the procedure in his lengthy Monday statement.

Despite his preference to appear evasive on the issue, his track record speaks for itself, Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign, said.

“Trump lies constantly ― about everything ― but has one track record: banning abortion every chance he gets,” Tyler said.

During his time in office, he with anti-choice leaders who support a nationwide ban, and also tried to make it harder for people to get access to medication abortion, among other things.

Trump can lie but he can’t hide!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

They were the invisible warriors on the home front who became known as “Rosie the Riveters” for their work in helping to lead the United States to victory during World War II. Eighty years later, they were honored Wednesday with a Congressional Gold Medal.

“Rosie the Riveter” was the moniker given to women who went to work during World War II, taking on roles historically dominated by men while men were drafted to fight overseas.

Around 5 million civilian women went to work during the war, many helping to build equipment for the war, while around 350,000 American women served in the military, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Twenty-eight ‘Rosie the Riveters,’ women who entered the US defense workforce during WWI…  Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock

“This recognition is long overdue, but today Congress finally bestows this honor on these deserving patriots,” said Republican Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, a cosponsor of The Rosie the Riveter Congressional Gold Medal Act, legislation that was passed in 2020 and led to the women receiving the medal Wednesday.

One of the dozens of original “Rosie the Riveters” who traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the medal in person was Lucille “Cille” MacDonald, a 98-year-old who lives in Hawaii.

When the war broke out, MacDonald, then a 17-year-old, left her family’s farm in South Carolina and hopped on a Greyhound bus to Georgia to help.

MacDonald told ABC News that she was “scared to death” when Japan dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

“That’s when I said, ‘Do something about it. Just do something about it. Stop worrying and do something about it,'” MacDonald recalled. “So I became very patriotic and very much in love with my country.”

MacDonald became a journeyman welder in Brunswick, Georgia.

“I was the best welder in the entire shipyard,” she recalled. “I can’t forget that. I can’t ever forget that. The best, and boy that’s saying a lot. And I launched one huge ship a week. In just a week. I mean, imagine. You know how big a ship is? A ship is huge.”

Another woman honored Wednesday was Mae Krier, a Levittown, Pennsylvania, resident who built B-17 and B-29 bombers in Seattle from 1943 to 1945. Years later, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Krier, 94 years old at the time, began making face masks in the same red polka dot fabric worn in the famed “Rosie the Riveter” poster.

She was credited Wednesday for being an “unrelenting advocate” in making sure the women of her generation received their due.

Krier, dressed in a red polka dot vest, accepted the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of all the Rosies, calling it a “great honor.”

“Up until 1941, it was a man’s world. They didn’t know how capable us women were, did they,” Krier said to loud applause, later adding that she is most proud of the path she and other women set for future generations.

“We’re so proud of the women and young girls who are following in our lead,” she said. “I think that’s one of the greatest things we left behind is what we’ve done for women.”

Krier ended her remarks with the words that came to symbolize the motto of “Rosie the Riveters,” saying, “We can do it.”

Without as doubt, America’s greatest generation!

Tony

Wall Street Journal

Dear Commons Community,

The far-right Florida Republican Matt Gaetz forced Kevin McCarthy out as House speaker last year “because he slept with a 17-year-old” and wanted a congressional ethics investigation to end, McCarthy charged on Tuesday.  As reported by The Guardian and other media.

“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker,” McCarthy said, at an event at Georgetown University in Washington.

“Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it.

“Now, did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it.”

The House ethics investigation of allegations against Gaetz opened in 2021, when Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was speaker.

The House investigation was paused when Gaetz was investigated by the US Department of Justice for sex trafficking, over allegations that he paid for sex and had sex with an underage woman. In December 2022, Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to the investigation of Gaetz, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for offenses including sex trafficking a minor.

In February 2023, prosecutors said they would not issue charges. The House ethics investigation then restarted.

Gaetz denies wrongdoing. On Tuesday, he told Politico: “Kevin is a liar. Which, actually, is why he isn’t speaker. Just ask any of the 224 people who voted to remove him.”

McCarthy became the first speaker ever ejected by his own party, last October, after Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate and attracted support from seven other Republicans. Because Democrats refused to come to McCarthy’s aid, that was enough to show him the door. McCarthy left Congress at the end of last year.

Citing a review of private correspondence, the Daily Beast has reported that Gaetz “indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback” for the House ethics investigation.

The Beast said “other Republican congressional sources” also said Gaetz was motivated to move against McCarthy by the ethics investigation, not policy differences.

Gaetz told the Beast: “As I’ve answered likely 100 times on the record, I led the charge to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as House speaker because he failed to keep his promises.”

McCarthy lost his job shortly after relying on Democratic support to pass a spending package, thereby averting a government shutdown. His successor as speaker, Mike Johnson, now faces a similar threat, a motion to vacate filed by another right-wing extremist, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, but not yet forced to a vote.

At Georgetown, McCarthy said: “So then they come out and they say [I was ejected] because I kept government open. I’d do it all over again. We’re not going to pay our troops? I’m going to pay my troops, you can do the job …

“I think today if you went back for the people that voted [to remove me] they think that was a smart vote? I don’t think so … I made everybody stand up, because I think historically, it’ll be viewed as a very bad thing that happened to our Congress.”

Asked if he thought the same would happen to Johnson, McCarthy said: “No. The Democrats will never let it happen.”

God save us from the Republicans!

Tony

RISMedia

Dear Commons Community

Inflation ticked higher in March, according to new Labor Department data released yesterday.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent last month and 3.5 percent annually, largely in line with economist projections. Economists had anticipated inflation would increase 0.4 percent in March and 3.4 percent annually.

The latest numbers come after two months of hotter than expected inflation data. Consumers prices were up 3.2 percent year over year in February and 3.1 percent in January.

The American public has been responding to inflation negatively for some time and yesterday’s CPI will only add to their angst.  Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman analyzes people’s perceptions of inflation in his column in today’s New York Times.  Here is an excerpt.

“I wrote recently about a couple of Quinnipiac swing-state polls that asked registered voters about both the economy and their personal finances. In both Michigan and Pennsylvania — states crucial to the outcome of this year’s presidential election — more than 60 percent of respondents rated the economy as not so good or bad; a similar percentage said that their own situation is excellent or good.

Americans are upbeat not just about their own circumstances; they’re also upbeat about their local economies. A recent Wall Street Journal poll of swing state voters found that voters have negative views of the national economy but significantly more positive views about the economy in their state. This is consistent with the Federal Reserve’s report on economic well-being for 2022 (published in 2023), which shows a much higher percentage of Americans assessed their local economy as good or excellent than the percentage who said the same about the national economy.

Basically, Americans are saying, “I’m doing OK, people I know are doing OK, but bad things are happening somewhere out there.” As The Journal’s Greg Ip wrote, “When it comes to the economy, the vibes are at war with the facts.”

What explains this disconnect? Inflation surely contributes to bad feelings about the economy. New research by Harvard’s Stefanie Stantcheva confirms an old insight: When both wages and prices are rising, people tend to believe that they earned their wage increases but that inflation took away their hard-won gains.

However, inflation aversion doesn’t explain why people think their state is doing well but the nation is a mess.

The elephant in the room — and it is mainly an elephant, although there’s a bit of donkey too — is partisanship. These days, Americans’ views of the economy tend to be determined by political affiliation rather than the other way around.

This is true for supporters of both parties, but statistical analysis shows that the effect of partisanship on economic perceptions is much stronger for Republicans — who for much of last year were roughly as negative about the economy as they were in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and during the stagflation of 1980 — so the fact that a Democrat is president drags down average consumer sentiment. Any discussion of economic perceptions that doesn’t take this factor into account is missing a big part of the picture.

It’s not hard to see where this asymmetry comes from. Republican politicians and media are united in trashing the Biden economy, which Donald Trump says is “collapsing into a cesspool of ruin,” in which “stores are not stocked” — something that simply isn’t true. Democrats, on the other hand, are divided, with some progressives talking down the economy because they fear that acknowledging the good news might undermine the case for strengthening that weak social safety net.

If you ask me, more progressives should celebrate the current economy, not just to help Biden get re-elected, but because economic success vindicates the progressive vision. I’d argue that Biden deserves some credit for the good news, but the more important point is that policies like the expansion of Obamacare and student debt relief have not, contrary to conservative predictions, dragged the economy down — which means that it’s OK to call for more.”

Fine analysis!

Tony

Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror

Dear Commons Community,

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in a 4-2 decision that a 150-year-old law criminalizing almost all abortions can go into effect, according to a court filing yesterday.

The law would override a previous 15-week abortion ban in the state, which went into effect in March 2022. The 19th-century law has been stayed for 14 days, allowing for a lower court to hear additional arguments. But if allowed to go into effect, it would be a near-total ban, making exceptions only in the case that the pregnant person’s life is threatened. Health care providers who perform abortions could face prison time between two to five years.

An October 2022 order from the Maricopa County Superior Court requires a delay of 45 days after a mandate in the case is issued before the 1864 law can go into effect.

Citing that order, Planned Parenthood Arizona said in an emailed statement that it will continue to provide abortions on pregnant patients up to the 15-week mark for an unspecified period of time.

The 1864 law is set to face legal challenges if it goes into effect.

Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, stated that during her term, “no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.” Mayes said the ruling was “unconscionable” and “an affront to freedom.”

Several reproductive rights groups in a coalition called Arizona for Abortion Access are pushing forward with a ballot initiative that would allow voters to choose whether language guaranteeing abortion access up to 24 weeks of pregnancy should be added to the state’s constitution. Exceptions could be made after the 24-week mark if a provider finds that an abortion would “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

The groups, which include the state’s Planned Parenthood and ACLU affiliates, have successfully collected the required signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

An August 2023 poll by Indivisible and Data For Progress, two progressive organizations, suggests that 60% of Arizonans consider themselves “pro-choice.”

“Today’s ruling is devastating. It’s also wildly out of step with where Arizona voters are at. Arizona Republicans in the courts and in public office have been playing political football with abortion rights, and voters are tired of it,” Mari Urbina, Managing Director at Indivisible, said in a statement. “The only course now is going directly to the voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.”

Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022 overturned the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, abortion has been banned in at least 14 states.

“Today’s decision to allow Arizona’s archaic, near-total abortion ban to be enforced is devastating for reproductive freedom,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said.

“We have already seen the effect of similar bans in states like Texas and Oklahoma, where some patients have been unable to get care even when their lives are at risk and health care providers fear criminalization. This is untenable, and it is not what the majority of Arizonans want.”

The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, Angela Florez, said in an email to HuffPost that the ban would disproportionately impact people from marginalized communities and set Arizona back by nearly 150 years.

“We know that today’s ruling does not reflect the will of the people, as Arizonans are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion access. Instead, it is the latest card in anti-abortion extremists’ deck of cruel and harmful tactics to strip Arizonans of their right to live under a rule of law that respects our bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions,” Florez said.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each condemned the ruling.

“This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote,” Biden said. “This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”

Harris largely blamed former President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for overturning Roe v. Wade.

“President Biden and I are doing everything in our power to stop Trump and restore women’s reproductive freedom, but it is going to take all of us,” she said.

Meanwhile, a number Arizona Republicans who previously celebrated the end of federal protections for the procedure sought political cover by distancing themselves from the ruling.

Republicans in the state issued a wave of statements in opposition to the ruling.

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, who two years ago called the 1864 statute “a great law,” said yesterday that it was “out of step with Arizonans.”  You can’t have it both ways and go back and forth with your views on such an important issue, Ms. Lake!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The five major broadcast and cable news networks have prepared a joint open letter that urges President Biden and former President Trump to participate in televised debates ahead of Election Day.

The letter — endorsed by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — thrusts into public view a question that has swirled within media and political circles: whether the presidential debates, one of the nation’s last remaining mass civic rituals in a polarized age, will occur this year at all.

“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter reads, according to a draft version obtained by The New York Times.

The letter is not yet final, and the networks are also seeking endorsements from other leading national news organizations, including newspapers.

Mr. Biden has repeatedly declined to commit to participating in the three debates scheduled for September and October. His aides say they are concerned that the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan group that has organized the telecasts since 1988, will be unable to enforce the rules when Mr. Trump takes the stage.

Mr. Trump has vowed to debate, and has taken to taunting Mr. Biden for not following suit. But Mr. Trump’s track record is mixed: In 2020, he pulled out of a debate against Mr. Biden at the last minute, prompting its cancellation, and in the recent Republican primary he refused to appear onstage, even once, with his opponents.

The television networks’ letter was organized as a response to the uncertainty, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions about an ongoing effort.

“General election debates have a rich tradition in our American democracy, having played a vital role in every presidential election of the past 50 years dating to 1976,” the draft letter reads. “In each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas, for the votes of American citizens.”

This is a good move on the part of the networks!

Tony

Rita Palmer

Dear Commons Community,

A representative for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign admitted in a meeting with New York Republicans what some Democrats have long suspected — that Kennedy’s independent bid is designed to thwart Joe Biden.

“The only way for him, for Bobby, to shake it up and to get rid of Biden is if he’s on the ballot in every state, including New York,” Kennedy campaign representative Rita Palmer told a group of New York Republicans, per CNN, which referred to Palmer as the campaign’s New York state director. “The Kennedy voter and the Trump voter, our mutual enemy is Biden.”

Palmer also reportedly told the group the campaign’s aim is to deny Biden 270 electoral votes so that Congress will ultimately decide the election in favor of Trump. (If no candidate reaches a majority of Electoral College votes, the presidential election is decided in the U.S. House of Representatives; the U.S. Senate would get to pick a vice president.)

Kennedy, according to his own campaign, has only managed to get on the ballot in a handful of states, all of them winner-take-all, meaning Kennedy would need to outright beat Trump or Biden to get any Electoral College votes. Palmer was making the case to New York Republicans that, with Kennedy on the ballot, Trump could potentially win the historically blue state.

Kennedy could muck up the election for Biden or Trump by siphoning enough votes to create an unlikely Electoral College tie between the two major party nominees.

Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy’s campaign has sought to downplay the role of Palmer in the campaign, referring to her as a ballot access consultant who was not involved with electoral strategy nationally.

“This was not a campaign event. Palma was speaking as a private citizen and her statements in no way reflect the strategy of the Kennedy campaign, which is to win the White House with votes from former Trump and Biden supporters alike,” the campaign said in a statement.

Democrats argue that Kennedy’s campaign is a spoiler for Biden, and top Democratic groups are dedicating significant resources to combating the threat they believe Kennedy’s campaign poses.

Trump had once welcomed Kennedy into the race, but in a sign that Kennedy’s candidacy is now a wild card for both candidates, Trump is lashing out at him. Last month, Trump called Kennedy “the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Former Vice President Mike Pence blasted former President Trump on Monday for embracing the position that abortion policy should be determined by states and avoiding taking a stance on whether the federal government should enforce a national ban at a certain cutoff point.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Pence — who was Trump’s running mate in 2016 and 2020 —said Trump’s newly announced position on abortion was a “slap in the face” to opponents of abortion rights who voted for their ticket.  As reported by The Hill.

“President Trump’s retreat on the Right to Life is a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020,” Pence wrote in his post, before praising the steps their administration took to further the anti-abortion effort.

“By nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs and gave the pro-life movement the opportunity to compassionately support women and unborn children. In the landmark Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court returned the question of abortion to the states and the American people,” Pence wrote.

Pence, who ran for president in 2024 on a fiercely anti-abortion rights platform, has been critical of Trump for equivocating in the past on the issue of abortion.

Pence recently announced he would not endorse Trump’s 2024 candidacy, saying Trump was “walking away” from conservative principles, including “a commitment to the sanctity of life.” Pence also cited Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election as a key reason he was withholding his support.

In his statement Monday, Pence took aim at Republicans who have backed down from boldly embracing an anti-abortion position.

“The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law. But today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life,” Pence said.

“Republicans win on life when we speak the truth boldly and stand on the principle that we all know to be true — human life begins at conception and should be defended from womb to tomb. However much our Republican nominee or other candidates seek to marginalize the cause of life, I know pro-life Americans will never relent until we see the sanctity of life restored to the center of American law in every state in this country,” he continued.

Pence’s remarks came after Trump made his most comprehensive statement to date on abortion since becoming the party’s presidential nominee.

In a roughly four-minute video posted to Truth Social, Trump said he was proud to have ended Roe v. Wade through the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices, but he did not endorse any kind of federal abortion legislation despite pressure to do so from some conservative groups. He said states should determine their own abortion policies.

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said. “The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.” 

“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be,” he added. “At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or your faith.”

Trump is trying to sit on the fence on the abortion rights issue.

Also, Pence should not worry too much because Trump will lie on any issue at any time.

Tony