Title: On Late-Term Abortion, 2020 Democrats Are to the Left Even of Obama in 2008
Headings: On Late-Term Abortion, 2020 Democrats Are to the Left Even of Obama in 2008
On Late-Term Abortion, 2020 Democrats Are to the Left Even of Obama in 2008
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Content: It’s widely known that the Democratic party has shifted to the left on abortion over the years. What makes Democratic rhetoric on abortion in 2020 remarkable is that it is not a break merely from Jimmy Carter’s 1976 support to ban taxpayer funding of abortion or from Bill Clinton’s 1992 pledge to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” The 2020 Democrats are taking a more extreme position on late-term abortion than the most recent Democratic president, Barack Obama. Here’s what Democratic presidential nominee Obama told Relevant, a Christian magazine, in July 2008: I have repeatedly said that I think it’s entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don’t think that “mental distress” qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions. When pro-choice activists pointed out that Obama’s comments were inconsistent with Roe v. Wade ’s companion case Doe v. Bolton, which declares late-term abortion must be legal for reasons of “mental” or “emotional” health, he backtracked slightly. Obama said the exception for late-term abortion could be “rigorously” limited only to cases where women had “ serious clinical mental-health diseases ” (a position that was still inconsistent with Doe v. Bolton ).