In New Hampshire, DeSantis prefers not to talk about the Florida abortion ban

During a stopover on his first trip to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, Governor Ron DeSantis mentioned his efforts to provide tax relief to Florida families. He mentioned discontinuing diversity programs in public colleges. He mentioned his fight with Disney.

But what he didn’t mention was the six-week abortion ban he signed in Florida this year.

The ban — which Mr. DeSantis highlighted in his speeches to the public in socially conservative Iowa this week — is a potential lighting bar for voters in more moderate New Hampshire.

A New Hampshire Republican, Bob Kropel, approached Mr. DeSantis after his speech in Rochester as the governor signed baseballs and took selfies with the crowd.

“Would you support an abortion policy that allows choice to some extent?” asked Mr. Kropel, who lost the 1998 and 2002 Republican primaries for governor in New Hampshire, over the noise of the crowd and speakers blaring country music.

Mr. DeSantis evaded the scope of the question and instead spoke of his efforts to help parents after they have children, including through health insurance and universal school choice.

“So my wife has a paternity initiative,” he replied. “We’ve also done a lot to help new moms, like we now have a year of postpartum health coverage for poor moms. Obviously, we have the educational choice and a lot of things we’ve done.

“So we definitely have a responsibility to help mothers, that’s 100 percent without a doubt,” Mr. DeSantis said before moving on to the next voter.

Abortion is probably one of the most complicated issues for Mr. DeSantis to discuss, especially if he wins the Republican nomination.

Moderates and independents are generally less in favor of a six-week ban, when many women don’t know they are pregnant, and Mr. DeSantis has sometimes avoided discussing abortion even in front of friendly audiences. So far, he has evaded questions about a federal abortion ban, suggesting the matter should largely be left to the states.

“I think fighting for life and protecting life is ultimately a bottom-up movement,” he said in a Fox News interview last week. “I think we have been able to achieve great success at a local level.”

His main rival, former President Donald J. Trump, has also not committed to a federal abortion ban. Mr DeSantis has used abortion to criticize Mr Trump after the former president suggested Florida’s ban was “too harsh”.

Republican leaders in New Hampshire say a six-week ban is too extreme for voters in their state, which has a 24-week limit.

Jason Osborne, the state House majority leader who has supported Mr. DeSantis, said in an interview that he hoped the governor would declare at some point in the campaign that he would not “try to make Florida’s abortion policy nationwide.”

A national six-week abortion ban “would go over like a balloon” with voters in New Hampshire, Osborne said after Mr. DeSantis’ event in Rochester.

“People don’t want it,” he added. If Mr. DeSantis proposed such a ban, he said, “I think you’d see a lot of people jump ship.” I would lose a lot of faith in him.”

Mr Osborne said he agreed with the governor’s strategy not to take a louder stance on abortion.

“I think abortion is one of those issues that shouldn’t be talked about in a presidential campaign,” he said.

While Mr. DeSantis’ obtuse speech typically varies little from stop to stop, he seems to calibrate his message on abortion. In Iowa, he spoke Wednesday about Florida’s six-week ban, known as the Heartbeat Protection Act, during a lengthy recount of his record as governor. “We passed the heartbeat law,” he told a crowd in Cedar Rapids before being drowned out by cheers and applause.

But he didn’t mention the bill Thursday at several New Hampshire stops.

Even New Hampshire voters who said they supported a six-week ban said they understood why Mr. DeSantis was unlikely to talk much about the issue.

“I mean, my god, there’s so much backlash, right?” said Jennifer Hilton, 56, an independent who is open to supporting Mr. DeSantis and heard him speak in Rochester. “And it’s so taken out of context, and such an emotional issue, that people can’t hear you.”

Sue Collins, an attendee at a DeSantis event in Salem, NH, said, “I’ll be honest, I’m not strictly pro-life, but I wasn’t happy with the six-week ban.” She added, “I wish it wasn’t so strict, but it wouldn’t stop me from voting for him.”

Mr. Kropel, the Republican who approached Mr. DeSantis, said he was “on balance” unhappy with the governor’s answer to his question. Still, he acknowledged the difficulties of the discussion.

“I understand how delicate this whole situation is,” Mr Kropel said. “So I give him credit for at least listening to me.”

Anne Klein contributed reporting from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Amanda Pirani of Salem, NH