Mike Pence dodges crucial question about abortion, starts inexplicably talking about Iran instead

The only vice presidential debate of this US election campaign took place on Wednesday evening and although there weren't as many explosive confrontations as the first presidential debate there were still a few alarming moments of note.

From the fly on Mike Pence's head to Kamala Harris's many facial expressions, there were memes aplenty for the internet to indulge in, but when it came to policy, there wasn't much to write home about.

Harris was the clear victor in this area as she was actually prepared to talk about what her and Joe Biden's plans would be if they are to win November's election. However, Pence had a more unusual approach, seeming more interested in defending himself and Donald Trump and doing his absolute best to avoid answering any questions at all.

The best example of this was when the debate moved on to the subject of Trump's appointee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a Supreme Court judge, the conservative Amy Coney Barrett. If she is confirmed this would lead to a conservative majority on the court and could result in the overturning of the Roe v Wade ruling which gives women the right to have an abortion without any interference or restriction from the US government.

Debate moderator Susan Page asked Pence what he believes his home state of Indiana would do if a ban on abortions was reintroduced. She said:

If Roe v Wade is overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions?

Rather than answer the question, Pence, who is anti-abortion, decided to talk about the former Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US missile strike in January this year.

Pence did go on to talk about Barret and her personal beliefs but didn't directly address the question of what he would want Indiana to do in a ban on abortions was reintroduced.

Now with regard to the Supreme court... become Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and she’s a brilliant woman and she will bring a lifetime of experience and a sizeable American family to the Supreme court of the United States, and our hope is in the hearing next week, unlike Justice Kavanaugh received with treatment from you and others, that we hope she gets a fair hearing.

And we particularly hope that we don’t see the kind of attacks on her Christian faith that we saw before. I mean, the Democrat chairman of the Judiciary Committee before, when Judge Barrett was being confirmed for the court of appeals, expressed concern that the dogma of her faith lived loudly and her, and Dick Durbin of Illinois said that it was a concern.  Senator, I know one of our judicial nominees you actually attacked, because they were a member of the Catholic Knights of Columbus. Just because the Knights of Columbus holds pro-life views...

Pence was only given two minutes to answer the question about Indiana hence him running out of time.

The first part of the vice president's answer was a call back to just a few moments before this when they were discussing the US military's role in global conflicts and US foreign policy, which is when the name of Soleimani was mentioned.

This is what Harris said.

So, after the strike on Soleimani, there was a counter strike on our troops in Iraq, and they suffered serious brain injuries, and do you know what Donald Trump dismissed them as? Headaches. And this is about a pattern of Donald Trump’s where he has referred to our men who are serving in our military as suckers and losers.

Donald Trump, who went to Arlington cemetery and stood above the graves of our fallen heroes and said, 'What’s in it for them?' Because of course, he only thinks about what’s in it for him. Let’s take what he said about John McCain, a great American hero, and Donald Trump says, 'He doesn’t deserve to be called a hero because it was a prisoner of war.'

Although Pence had a right to reply to Harris, he probably could have chosen to do this elsewhere rather than using up valuable time to on an important topic like abortion which will directly effect millions of people across the United States.

People were disappointed to see the vice president dodge this subject and many others throughout the event and essentially refuse to debate anything.

Pence's support of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ agendas such as 'conversion therapy' are well documented making him something of an unpopular figure in his home state.