Bernie is changing the position of 2008 Hillary on abortion
On both sides of the pond today the topic of abortion and women’s reproductive rights has been raised.
In the UK, a number of organisations including bpas, Fawcett Society, Royal College of Midwives, End Violence Against Women Coalition, and Women’s Aid are calling for an end to “cruel archaic” abortion laws that “prevent women from making decisions about their own bodies”.
As those organisations point out, in existing UK law abortion is still technically illegal and a woman can be sentenced to life imprisonment for ending her own pregnancy.
The 1967 Abortion Act did not overturn this law — instead it made abortion legal if two doctors agreed a woman’s mental or physical health would suffer if she was forced to continue her pregnancy.
In the US, the debate about abortion is centered around the two Democratic presidential nominees: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
This view of Hillary Clinton was just published in the LA Times this afternoon:
In her last presidential run in 2008, Clinton said that she thought abortion should be “safe, legal and rare, and by rare, I mean rare.” She added that abortion “should not in any way be diminished as a moral issue,” and portrayed the choice to have an abortion as a wrenching one for “a young woman, her family, her physician and [her] pastor.”
But questioned on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” about a claim by Sen. Marco Rubio that “she believes that all abortions should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child,” Clinton replied: “You know, I’ve been on record for many years about where I stand on abortion, how it should be safe and legal and I have the same position that I’ve had for a very long time.”
So what happened to “rare”?
To repeat, abortion according to 2008 Hillary should be “rare” and not “diminished as a moral issue”. These are very strong words at a time when the debate in the US has become so heated, with the pro-life lobby making significant strides which ultimately impacts upon women’s choices.
Those who are pro-choice needed, and need, a strong voice on their side. 2008 Hillary doesn’t provide it.
The LA Times piece concludes by saying:
It’s likely that Clinton’s sharpening of her pro-choice stance will help her in the Democratic primaries.
It’s very obvious why that would be: because Bernie Sanders has a perfect record on women’s reproductive rights; he is pushing Hillary Clinton on to the right side of the debate.
Clearly she wasn’t going to get there herself, judging by 2008 Hillary’s rhetoric. Bernie’s perfect record has shifted the centre ground in favour of the pro-choice view.
Feminism, to quote a friend of mine, “is more than a title you just claim for yourself? Otherwise it’s meaningless.”
“ Feminism involves action.”
To conclude, here is Bernie Sanders’s record on reproductive rights:
- Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion
- Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions
- Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime
- Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life
- Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad.
In 1993, Sanders co-sponsored a bill protecting the reproductive rights of women:
- Provides that a State may not restrict the right of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy: before fetal viability; or at any time, if such termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman;
- Allows a State to impose requirements medically necessary to protect the life or health of such women.
- Declares that this Act shall not be construed to prevent a State from: requiring minors to involve responsible adults before terminating a pregnancy; and protecting individuals from having to participate in abortions to which they are conscientiously opposed.
To clarify his position again recently:
“As President, and as someone who has a 100 percent pro-choice voting record in Congress, I will do everything that I can to protect and preserve a woman’s right to an abortion,” Sanders said in a statement.
“Women must have full control over their reproductive health in order to have full control over their lives. We must rescind the Hyde Amendment and resist attempts by states to erect roadblocks to abortion.”
And for good measure:
“We are not going to allow the extreme right-wing to defund Planned Parenthood, we are going to expand it. Planned Parenthood provides vital healthcare services for millions of women, who rely on its clinics every year for affordable, quality health care services including cancer prevention, STI and HIV testing and general primary health care services.
“The current attempt to malign Planned Parenthood is part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies.”
