After foreign and domestic policy questions dominated Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Mike Pence and Tim Kaine got a chance to discuss abortion rights, a topic their running mates did not discuss with each other during the first presidential debate.
Moderator Elaine Quijano asked the candidates to name a time they’d struggled to balance their personal faith and a public policy decision. While Kaine spoke about his feelings on executions, the conversation quickly turned to abortion rights when Pence called out Kaine for saying he personally holds anti-abortion views, which sets him apart from Hillary Clinton.
“I appreciate and I have a great deal of respect for Sen. Kaine’s sincere faith,” Pence said. “That is shared. But for me, I would tell you the sanctity of life proceeds out of that ancient principle of God. I tried to stand for the ancient principle of the sanctity of life.”
“But what I can’t understand is Hillary Clinton, how she can support a process like partial-birth abortion,” the Indiana governor continued. “To hold to the view, and I know Senator Kaine, you hold pro-life views personally, but the very idea that a child that is almost born into the world could still have their life taken from them is just anathema to me. And I can’t conscience a party that supports that.”
Kaine countered with his own views about abortion, saying that both he and Clinton support Roe v. Wade. He then brought up previous comments that Trump made arguing that women should be punished for having abortions if the procedure were outlawed. He did not comment on his own previous support of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits women’s health providers from spending taxpayer dollars on abortion procedures, however. Clinton does not support the Hyde Amendment.
“We support the constitutional right of American women to consult their own conscience and make their own decision about pregnancy,” Kaine said. “That is something we trust American women to do. And we don’t think that women should be punished, as Donald Trump said they should.”
“I think you should live your moral values, but the last thing governments should do is to have laws that would punish women who make reproductive choices,” Kaine concluded.
Pence denied that Trump wants to punish women who have abortions, blaming the statement on the real estate mogul not being a “polished politician.”
“Donald Trump and I would never support legislation that would punish women who made the heartbreaking choice,” Pence said.
For his part, Pence has made headlines for threatening to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding and signing a bill that mandated people who miscarry or have abortions then hold funerals for their fetuses.
Christ on a stick that man needs to be kept as far away as possible from the levers of power in this country. His “principles of God” apparently includes second class citizenship for women.
I thought Kaine’s answer on this was excellent - pitch-perfect and heartfelt. He summarized his life as a Catholic and a missionary, and how that can be compatible with upholding the law of the land. He emphasized how unAmerican it would be to force his religious beliefs on others, in violation of the law.
Naturally, Pence played the “killing innocent babies” card and again dodged answering the moderator’s question.
Yes! Finally a mention about abortion as it regards the debate. But, more importantly, in the context of separation of church and state.
Kaine explained how he separated his official obligation from his personal beliefs.
Pence pontificated about the life of the fetus, convincing the ignorant of his sincerity when in reality it is the ultimate misogynyistic position to control the lives of women. The most revolting segment of the debate. IMHO
On top of all the usual “partial birth abortion” lies (NO SUCH MEDICAL PROCEDURE EXISTS), Pence actually said that women should be forced to give birth against their will so that their children could be given to childless couples.
WTF
Sometime between that little nugget and his smug Mother Theresa quote my family asked me to stop yelling at the TV.
I just wanted to post this somewhere here…This is outrageous, and its happening in Mike Pence’s Indiana, so no surprise there I suppose.
This should get some wider attention people!! OUTRAGEOUS.