Republican Presidential Candidates Discuss Views On Abortion Rights, Other Issues In Iowa
April 19, 2007 – 7:47 pm | posted in Abortion, Sexual Health / STDs, Stem Cell Research, Women's Health / OBGYNSeveral candidates for the Republican presidential nomination gathered on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss their views on abortion rights and other issues, the New York Times reports. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defined themselves as “lifelong opponents of abortion rights, drawing clear, if unspoken, contrasts with” former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who previously supported abortion rights but now opposes them, according to the Times. “I’m not late in declaring that life begins at conception and we ought to protect human life,” Huckabee said (Nagourney, New York Times, 4/15). McCain, who spoke last, said that he has supported “the rights of the unborn” for 24 years “without changing, without wavering,” the Los Angeles Times reports (Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 4/15). After the event, McCain was asked what he would do in regards to abortion as president, and he said he “would try to help change the culture in America” (Baker, Washington Post, 4/15). Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who entered the campaign event with supporters chanting “pro-life is whole life,” said, “We need a culture that does not corrode and does not corrupt.” Romney said what “makes America strong” is “the American people — hard working, risk-taking, opportunity-seeking, God-loving, family oriented, patriotic American people who respect the sanctity of human life” (Los Angeles Times, 4/15). Clinton Criticizes Bush Administration on Plan B, Stem Cell Research
In related news, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, in a speech in New Hampshire said the Bush administration “has tried to turn Washington, [D.C.], into an evidence-free zone, whether it’s on stem cell research or [Barr Laboratories' emergency contraceptive] Plan B … or pollution or global warming or the safety of our food or the quality of our air.” Clinton said the administration’s record is evidence for the need to reinstitute the Office of Technology Assessment, which was created in the 1970s to evaluate government and advise Congress on new technologies, the New York Times reports. Congressional Republicans abolished the office in 1995, according to the Times (Confessore, New York Times, 4/14).
“Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
You must be logged in to post a comment.