Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is dodging a key question in the abortion debate: Under what circumstances should late-term abortion be legal?
Every declared or likely Republican presidential candidate has expressed support for legislation that would ban most abortions later than 20 weeks after conception–or 5 months into pregnancy–when infants can feel pain and survive if born prematurely. But Hillary Clinton and her spokesman have declined to spell out Clinton’s position on late-term abortion.
The issue was brought to the forefront of the presidential race this week when Kentucky senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul told reporters to ask Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz “if she’s okay with killing a seven-pound baby that is just not yet born yet.” Wasserman Schultz replied: “Here’s an answer. I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved. Period. End of story.” Paul responded: “Sounds like her answer is yes, that she’s okay with killing a seven-pound baby.”
In 2005, Hillary Clinton said that “government should have no role” in limiting the right to abortion–a remark very similar to the one made by Wasserman Schultz this week. “This decision, which is one of the most fundamental, difficult, and soul-searching decisions a woman and a family can make, is also one in which the government should have no role,” Clinton said at the time.
But at other times, Clinton has claimed that she’d be willing to support a ban on late-term abortion. “I have said many times that I can support a ban on late-term abortions, including partial-birth abortions, so long as the health and life of the mother is protected,” Clinton said in a 2000 New York senatorial debate. Clinton did not define “health,” and supporters of a right to abortion have typically defined health exceptions so broadly–to include “mental and emotional” health–that any restriction on late-term abortion would be rendered meaningless. (In 2008, Barack Obama endorsed late-term abortion bans without a mental health exception, but quickly backtracked.)
So would Secretary Clinton support any federal law restricting late-term abortion? If so, how many weeks old must an unborn child be for the law to protect her? Must any restriction on late-term abortion include a “mental and emotional” health exception? And does Clinton still support taxpayer-funded elective abortions for Medicaid recipients?
THE WEEKLY STANDARD emailed Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill to get answers to these questions on Wednesday afternoon. But 48 hours later, Clinton’s spokesman, who has responded to questions from TWS in the past, still has not replied.
