Signaling his continued interest in a possible run for president in 2016, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to speak Friday at a gathering of a few thousand Christian conservative activists where he plans to talk up his his pro-life beliefs and discuss drug addiction.
Christie is set to deliver remarks at the Road to Majority Conference, sponsored by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. The event is billed as the “premier event for people of faith and conservative activists.”
A Christie aide told The Daily Caller that the governor will emphasize his pro-life credentials to the group, calling on the pro-life community to be “pro-life throughout life.”
“He will use his pro-life position as way to describe his philosophic approach to how we should treat our neighbors and remember that, ‘but for the grace of God go I,’” the aide said.
The New Jersey Republican will talk specifically about drug addiction and treatment, making the point that if you are going to be pro-life you have to be pro-life through the entire journey on a number of issues, and not just on abortion.
Christie made similar comments earlier this week in an interview with The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis about the new pilot program in his state requiring New Jersey police officers to carry the life saving drug Narcan for people who have overdosed.
“If you don’t save their life at the moment of crisis, you’re not going to be able to give them the kind of treatment they need to be able to reclaim their lives on the back end,” Christie told TheDC.
“The fact is that, if you’re pro-life, you can’t be pro-life just when they’re in the womb — you have to be pro-life when they get out of the womb, too,” he said. “And sometimes, those lives get messy and complicated and difficult. It doesn’t make the life any less precious, or any less worthy of protection, because they’ve fallen victim to a disease.”
Like Christie, a host of other potential Republican candidates for president are making appearances at the conference, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.