Huckabee said on May 16 that, if his campaign falters, he would have to think long and hard before agreeing to become a vice-presidential candidate on a ticket whose presidential candidate believes that abortion should remain legal. "This is an issue to me that is very critical. It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people," Huckabee told reporters in a conference call in South Carolina.