Mike Pence says the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade doesn't necessarily threaten rights to same-sex marriage and birth control

• Pence doesn't think the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade threatens other civil rights.
• Justice Thomas thinks SCOTUS should "reconsider" past decisions on same-sex rights and contraception.

Former Vice President Mike Pence doesn't think the Supreme Court's decision to end the constitutional right to abortion has implications for other civil rights, including access to contraception and the rights of same-sex couples.

"I have enormous respect for Justice Clarence Thomas but the majority on the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case made it clear that their decision was about abortion," Pence, a likely 2024 presidential candidate, said in an interview with Real Clear Politics ahead of a gala hosted by an anti-abortion rights group in Washington, D.C.

Thomas, in his concurring opinion in the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, said the Court "should reconsider" its other decisions based on substantive due process under the 14th Amendment.

He specifically cited the Court's 1966 decision in Griswold vs. Connecticut, which gave married couples the right to use contraception, its 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated state bans on same-sex sexual intimacy, and its 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which extended the right to marry to same-sex couples nationwide.

Pence distinguished between serious concerns over abortion laws and attempts "to create distractions in the public debate," to RCP, saying, "this seems like just that."

Thomas was the only Supreme Court justice to explicitly state that the court should revisit its precedents in other landmark civil rights cases. Nevertheless, his opinion alarmed civil rights advocates and spurred efforts by congressional Democrats to shore up protections for same-sex marriage in legislation.

In July, the Democratic-controlled House passed a bill to codify the right to same-sex marriage with nearly 50 Republicans also supporting the bill. The US Senate is set to take up the legislation in the coming weeks, with Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin lobbying 10 of her Republican colleagues to also support the legislation and overcome a Senate filibuster.

Pence, an evangelical Christian and lifetime anti-abortion advocate, told RCP that "it is incumbent on all of us to take the court at their word and focus on advancing the cause of life."

Despite mounting electoral backlash to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Pence believes conservatives and anti-abortion advocates should continue to pursue abortion bans at the national and state levels, calling the project of banning abortion "profoundly more important than short-term politics."