NBC host Chuck Todd grilled Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) on Sunday because the senator believes in "liberty" when it comes to vaccine mandates but wants to ban all abortions for women.
During an interview on Meet the Press, Braun argued that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to criminalize abortion.
"When do you believe abortion should be available?" Todd asked.
"So in my case, when you believe in the sanctity of life, you want abortions to be eliminated from the landscape if you can," Braun admitted.
"You don't believe there should be a baseline protection of a woman being able to get -- have access to abortion?" Todd asked again.
Braun dodged giving a direct answer but he said that the decision should be the "domain of the states."
Todd went on to ask Braun how he would enforce an abortion ban but the senator talked about states' rights instead.
"Would you criminalize it?" Todd wondered.
The Republican senator insisted that he is "perfectly comfortable with doing it."
"And this applies to many other issues as well," he added.
Todd then wanted to know how Braun could oppose vaccine mandates while also refusing to give women rights over their own bodies.
"What about the liberty of the woman who doesn't want to carry a pregnancy to term?" Todd pressed. "Why should the government force that? You don't want the government to force people to get a vaccine. You're essentially advocating for the government to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term that she may not want."
Braun rejected the premise of the question.
"You might try to create that as an equivalent but I don't," he asserted. "Here, I'm saying on the abortion issue, take it back to the states where I think the Constitution intended it to be."
