RALEIGH, N.C. – Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday called the pro-life position central to the American experiment.

The vice president's comments came during a discussion hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that supports anti-abortion political candidates.

Pence touted President Donald Trump's recent actions, including blocking federal money from going to support any of Planned Parenthood's services, many of which have nothing to do with abortion. He also criticized a June Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Louisiana law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

“It's remarkable to think that a common-sense measure like saying that a doctor in an abortion clinic should also be required to have admitting privileges at the nearest hospital, that that would be seen as some kind of barrier, as a barrier in the law, is extraordinary,” he said.

North Carolina's abortion clinics currently are located in nine cities: Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Charlotte, Wilmington, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Asheville. Tara Romano, executive director of NARAL Pro Choice North Carolina, said this leaves rural women in particular without ready access to abortion care.

“When you place more restrictions on certain types of healthcare, like abortion, it just means that people have a harder time accessing that care, and then any time you have a harder time accessing needed care, it's going to have detrimental outcomes,” she said.

Lawmakers often cite patient safety when they enact new restrictions such as waiting periods, mandatory counseling or doctor licensing requirements. But data suggest they might have the opposite effect.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health and released in May found infant mortality was about 10 percent higher in states that had more abortion restrictions. The study's authors caution more research is needed to determine whether this is a cause-and-effect relationship.

Romano said medical groups, including the American College of OB/GYNs and the American Medical Association, reject the restrictions typically favored by lawmakers as not being based on medical evidence.

Polling data show the public tends to lean in favor of abortion rights, with reservations.

In the most recent Gallup poll, taken in May, 29 percent of respondents said abortion should be legal under all circumstances while half said it should be legal only under certain circumstances.

A Pew Research poll completed last year drilled a little deeper. In that poll, 27 percent said they favored abortion rights in all cases while 34 percent said abortion should be legal for most. Another 26 percent said it should be illegal in most cases, but just 12 percent favored a total ban.