Both sides of the abortion debate are clamoring for NBC’s Lester Holt, the moderator of Monday’s presidential debate, to broach the subject of abortion in America with the candidates.
Mark Harrington, director of pro-life group Created Equal told the Washington Examiner Friday that he would ask Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton about the controversial Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal tax dollars from being used to pay for elective abortions.
“How does forcing large swaths of American taxpayers to fund abortion square with your husband’s and your long time contention that you want abortion to be ‘rare?'” Harrington would ask Clinton.
Harrington would ask Republican nominee Donald Trump, “What do you account for your conversion to being pro-life and what assurances can you give to pro-life voters that this change wasn’t simply political?”
He added that Trump should point to specific things he would do as president to advance the pro-life cause.
Several pro-abortion groups sent a letter to Lester Holt Thursday petitioning him to press Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the “crisis in abortion access in our country.”
“While many topics deserve the candidates’ consideration — from job creation to immigration to national security — safe and reliable access to abortion is fundamental to all Americans’ ability to determine our own destinies,” read the letter, signed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, All* Above All Action Fund, UltraViolet, Feminist Majority, CREDO and National Organization for Women.
Questions proposed in the letter ask how the candidates would make sure the “constitutional right to abortion is guaranteed to all Americans” regardless of their finances, how to ensure women with the Zika virus had abortion access and how to fight maternal mortality.
Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, also weighed in on Twitter, calling for the subject of abortion be broached in the debate.
With access under attack in states across the country, moderators at the #debates need to #AskAboutAbortion https://t.co/Jrt5waJgJI
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) September 23, 2016
Richards told CNN her question to the candidates would be, “What would you do as president to ensure that abortion remains safe, legal, and accessible?”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America echoed Harrington’s concerns about the removal of the Hyde Amendment since “a vast majority of Americans, pro-choice and pro-life, are against taxpayer-funded abortion,” she told the Examiner.
“The candidates should absolutely be asked about abortion, which takes the life of an innocent child and can cause irreparable harm to the mother … It affects millions of women, their families and even their communities.” she stated.
Hawkins proposed Trump and Clinton be asked when and in what cases they think abortion should remain legal.
She added that the candidates should be pressed on why Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, should continue to receive federal funds after it was caught covering up child abuse and engaging in questionable fetal tissue transfers.
The long-time advocate for the unborn also said she would ask, “What would they do to support women in crisis pregnancies, especially on college campuses where Planned Parenthood preys on vulnerable women and tells them they can’t possibly have a child and continue their education?”
Hawkins mentioned former doctor Kermit Gosnell, who received three life sentences for the murder of babies born alive during abortions and also was responsible for the death of a mother who came to him for an abortion.
“What would you do to stop other abortionists like Kermit Gosnell who are operating dangerous abortion facilities?” Hawkins told the Examiner she would ask the debaters.
“The belief that everyone has a right to life, from the smallest and most vulnerable among us to those with special needs to the elderly and frail, is a foundational value that directs all other opinions,” Hawkins concluded.
