During a town hall event earlier this week, with pressure from anti-abortion groups mounting, FOX News Channel’s Bret Baier asked Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders one of the most important questions of the night.
“Do you think a child should have any legal rights or protections before it’s born, or do you think there should not be any restrictions on any abortions at any stage in a pregnancy?”
Clinton initially dodged the question, saying the Supreme Court was considering a Texas law that, in her words, “would shut down a lot of options for women.” She said Roe v. Wade is “rooted in the Constitution,” and that it established women had a universal right to terminate a pregnancy.
“It’s not much of a right if it is totally limited and constrained,” she said. “We have to continue to stand up for a woman’s right to make these decisions, and to defend Planned Parenthood, which does an enormous amount of good work across our country.”
She said she has, in the past, favored regulating late-term abortions with exceptions for the life and health of the mother. But she then said she opposed recent efforts in Congress to ban abortions after 20 weeks, without exceptions.
The response from her challenger was just as heartbreaking.
“I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to do with her own body,” he said. “I believe that there are honest people who hold a different view, and I respect that, but that is my view.”
Sanders went on to say that Republicans “think government is horrible,” and want to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and education, but also “want to tell every woman in America what she should do with her body.” Asked a follow-up, he repeated his position that there should be no restrictions on abortion.
“I am very strongly pro-choice,” he said. “That is a decision to be made by the woman, her physician and her family. That’s my view.”
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