WASHINGTON — Former Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper declined to say whether his presidential administration would support any restrictions on abortion should he be elected to the White House in 2020, but said access to the procedure is an “inalienable” right.
“I look at the woman’s right to control what happens to her body as being inalienable,” Hickenlooper said in response to a Washington Examiner question about whether there was any scenario in which abortion access could be curtailed. “In other words, that’s a right that the government should not take away or infringe upon.”
Hickenlooper said the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade defines the government’s role in restricting the procedure. In Roe, the Supreme Court found that access to abortion is a constitutional right, but that the federal and state governments could prohibit abortions after the point of fetal viability, about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Hickenlooper also said he was in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment, a ban on most federal funding for abortion procedures.
Recent polls show that large majorities oppose legalizing abortions late in pregnancies.
