DES MOINES, Iowa — More than a dozen GOP presidential hopefuls spoke to a crowd of about 1,200 GOP members and activists at the Lincoln Dinner on Friday night in Des Moines.
No two candidates were allowed on the stage at the same time, allowing each speaker to address the room in hopes of gaining the audience's support.
Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines as they shared the stage for the first time in Iowa at a campaign event.
Outside of Trump and DeSantis, some GOP underdogs also raised some eyebrows for their stance on reproductive rights.
"I believe the time has come for a minimum national standard of a 15-week ban at the federal level," former Vice President Mike Pence said, receiving minimal applause.
Pence and other candidates -- like politician Ryan Binkley -- talked about a wide array of subjects, but reproductive rights stood out at the event.
"I feel like that [the states] are navigating this," Binkley told Local 5. "They're working this out. Let's let the process happen. You know, give it some time. Every state's trying to figure this out, and I wanna see how that works, and we'll deal with that as it comes."
The discussion of reproductive rights at the Lincoln Dinner comes at a time where abortion remains in limbo in Iowa.
On July 11, Iowa legislators passed a near-total abortion ban after Governor Kim Reynolds called lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special legislative session. The bill effectively bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, around the time a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Then three days later. on July 14, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law. However, district judge Joseph Seidlin put a pause on the new restrictions on July 17.
Reynolds has since then filed an appeal, which was approved by the Iowa Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court can rule on the temporary injunction alone, or it can decide to fast-forward a decision on merits of the newly passed law itself.
While GOP presidential candidates spoke at the Lincoln Dinner Friday night, Vice President Kamala Harris was also in Des Moines.
Harris met with health care providers, patients, local leaders and abortion advocates in Iowa, while also addressing reproductive rights in the state of Iowa.
"As I travel the country, it is clear to me that so many people in these state legislatures, don't even know how women's bodies work," Vice President Harris said. "The government should not be telling her what to do."
As of late July, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.