‘A moral issue.’ Pence to visit Florence church service for roll out of ‘post Roe’ policy

Is he running?

It’s an easy question to ask of former vice president Mike Pence upon his latest trip to South Carolina, a key early voting state that can quickly determine the political fortune of presidential candidates.

But officials with knowledge of Pence’s visit to Florence Baptist Temple say White House aspirations aren’t on the agenda during a talk centered around the “Post-Roe world,” as advertised on the church’s Facebook page.

Pastor Bill Monroe’s longtime friendship with former state Republican Party chairman Chad Connelly led to talks with Pence’s camp and his decision to use the South Irby Street church as a backdrop for his remarks.

Pence has called on every state to outlaw abortion since the Supreme Court’s landmark June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and in May headlined a fundraiser at a Spartanburg pregnancy crisis center.

“He said the vice president wanted to make this statement from a church if possible, because of the nature of it,” Monroe told The Sun News. “We believe that it’s a spiritual and a moral issue.”

South Carolina’s current law bans abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother and fetal anomaly. The Republican-led General Assembly is likely this year to pass a more restrictive ban, with the House recently starting public listening sessions that have focused almost entirely on whether to keep exceptions in place.

Palmetto Family Council president David Wilson said Pence is expected to roll out a “life after Roe” policy aimed at offsetting an executive order by Joe Biden that includes protections for medication-induced abortions, wider access to contraceptives and free legal services for reproductive health care providers and patients.

Monroe, who founded Florence Baptist Temple in 1969 out of an abandoned theater, is on the Palmetto Family Council’s governing board. The church today sprawls across 52 acres and draws up to 2,000 people to weekly services.

Since its inception, Monroe said, the sanctity of life has guided temple doctrine. Despite Pence’s decades of politics, the Wednesday night service will be presented as a church service and not a political rally, he added.

“We view it as a biblical issue at the very root of all morality,” Monroe said. “I know it’s become politicized, and I know it’s become a major political issue in the country but it also, to me, is such a spiritual, moral issue.”

Regardless of what Pence might say, his latest Palmetto State appearance reinforces the coveted role South Carolina plays in national politics, Wilson said.

“The fact that vice president Pence is speaking about life after Roe in Florence, South Carolina, tells you how important this issue is to conservative voters,” Wilson said. “I welcome every voice that wants to come to this state and speak on issues that matter to conservatives.”