INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Former Vice President and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Tuesday said he considers abortion a moral issue, not a states issue.

Pence’s remarks came at a breakout session hosted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) as part of the Convention’s annual meeting. In a fireside chat with ERLC President Brent Leatherwood, Pence said he disagreed with Republican candidates who have said the question of abortion should be left up to the states in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. Pence has consistently called for a nationwide abortion ban in the wake of the ruling. He said the Dobbs ruling returned the issue to the states and to the American people, not to the states alone.

“I think the destiny of this nation is inextricably linked to whether we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Southern Baptists are in town to vote on a host of internal policy positions. Chief among them is an amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention Constitution to ban women from serving as pastors. Pence did not address that issue, nor did he speak on a proposed resolution that backs in-vitro fertilization treatments only if they do not lead to the destruction of frozen embryos. Convention delegates, called messengers, also plan to vote on a resolution reaffirming the Southern Baptist Convention’s opposition to abortion under any circumstances.

Pence also spoke at some length about his refusal to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his actions during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, something he made central to his short-lived presidential campaign last year. Pence said in the days and weeks leading up to that day, he turned to prayer, including Psalm 15, which reads, “Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? The one… who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind.”

“I know something about that,” Pence said. “I’ve often told our children that the safest place to be in the world is in the center of God’s will. I knew that we were where we were supposed to be, doing what we were supposed to be doing.”

He said he doesn’t know if he and former President Donald Trump will ever agree on the question of whether he could overturn the results of the Electoral College. Pence has repeatedly criticized Trump for demanding he do so and, earlier this year, said he would not endorse Trump for president, though he did not rule out voting for him. As for Trump’s chief opponent, Pence said Tuesday he will not vote for President Joe Biden.

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