President Obama said Tuesday that abortion is an appropriate topic for American politics, but cautioned that the discussions need to be civil.
“I think it’s fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion,” he said during a news conference in Paris, where he was attending United Nations climate talks. “I don’t think that’s something that is beyond the pale of our political discussion. That’s a serious, legitimate issue. How we talk about it, making sure that we’re talking about it factually, accurately, and not demonizing organizations like Planned Parenthood, I think is important.”
As for the low-cost health-services provider, Obama said it provides vital services to women, especially poor women. “In many cases, it’s the only organization that provides health services to impoverished women,” he said.
His comments echo those made by other Democrats who have suggested that Republican attacks against Planned Parenthood may have played a role in the shooting attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., that left three dead. Dealing with the shooting, Obama reiterated what he has said after other mass shootings.
“These mass shootings … just don’t happen in other countries,” Obama said.
Obama said the United States doesn’t combat such killings the way it does terrorism. Americans “have the power to do more to prevent what is just a regular process of gun homicides — that is unequaled by multiples of five, six, 10,” he said.
He again called on the body politic and citizens to have rational, constructive talks about how to end gun violence in the wake of yet another tragedy.
“I hope … this spurs a conversation and action and I will continue to present those things that I can do administratively,” he said. “But in the end of the day, Congress, states, local governments, are going to have to act in order to make sure that we’re preventing people who are deranged or have violent tendencies from getting weapons that can magnify the damage that they do.”
