Rudy Giuliani: I Can Support Both Abortion and Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

LifeNews ^ | 04/26/2007 | Steven Ertelt

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Concord, NH (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani defended his position on abortion and partial-birth abortion during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Tuesday. The former New York City mayor told voters that he's not being inconsistent when he says he supports abortion but also backs the Supreme Court ruling on the partial-birth abortion ban. Giuliani insisted that his recent support for the partial-birth abortion ban and the high court's ruling upholding it was consistent with his past opposition to the ban.

"I think you can be personally opposed to it, hate abortion, respect somebody else's conscience who might make a different decision, and also believe that particular form of abortion is wrong," he said.

He said he shifted his position on the ban when lawmakers adopted "more scientific language" in the life of the mother provision in the bill in 2003.

Giuliani explained that he opposed the partial-birth abortion ban in the 1990s and supported President Clinton's two vetoes of it because he didn't think the life of the mother exception was strong enough.

However, the premise behind Clinton's vetoes was his contention that the ban needed a health exception despite medical groups saying that the three-day-long abortion procedure is never medically necessary.

Giuliani previously told CNN's Inside Politics in a 1999 interview, that he does not support even a modest ban on the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure saying, "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing."

Yet, in a Fox News interview in February, Giuliani said that he supports a ban on partial-birth abortion as long as there is a provision to protect the life of the mother.

"If it has provision for the life of the mother, then I would support it," he told the Fox News program.

But his pro-abortion views overall are turning him off with GOP voters and the more the abortion issue comes up the more his poll numbers are beginning to fall.

Republican voters have previously turned away pro-abortion candidates from capturing the primary nod, including former California Gov. Pete Wilson and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. Republicans haven't had a pro-abortion nominee since Gerald Ford in 1976.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are the top two candidates in the polls apart from Giuliani.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are also running and drawing significant support from the pro-life community.

Other potential Republican candidates include pro-life former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, pro-life Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson are also in the mix.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

"I think you can be personally opposed to it, hate abortion, respect somebody else's conscience who might make a different decision, and also believe that particular form of abortion is wrong."

Just gotta love how consistent he is. *rolls eyes*

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Pro-Life/Stop Rudy ping.

[Southerngl]

Rudy Giuliani: I Can Support Both Abortion and Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
***

I agree with Rudy.

[TheKidster]

“I think you can be personally opposed to it, hate grade school aged child pedophilia, respect somebody else’s conscience who might make a different decision, and also believe that particular form of sex is wrong.”

[Nachum]

(In my best Cary Grant voice...)

Oh, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy...

[spikeytx86]

"I think you can be personally opposed to it, hate abortion, respect somebody else's conscience who might make a different decision"

OK then, under those guidelines why can't I kill anyone then? You may be personally against murder but is it not really a matter of the conscience? If I can get an o.k. from the SCOTUS on this, watch out Olberman!

[dirtboy]

He said he shifted his position on the ban when lawmakers adopted "more scientific language" in the life of the mother provision in the bill in 2003.

He was opposed to a PBA ban before he was in favor of it.

[showme_the_Glory]

forked tongue ping? He is slipping in the polls. That’s why he feels the need to run his mouth. If he felt secure in his lead, he’d be quiet.

[NeoCaveman]

If I can get an o.k. from the SCOTUS on this, watch out Olberman!

I'm hate murder. I don't believe in murder, but if the Supreme Court will let you kill Keith Olberman then I support your right to chose to do so.

[Fiji Hill]

Flip, flop and fly,
I dont care if I die.
I said flip, flop and fly,
I dont care if I die.

Big Joe Turner

[Fiji Hill]

Flip, flop and fly,
I dont care if I die.
I said flip, flop and fly,
I dont care if I die.

Big Joe Turner

[Spiff]

He said he shifted his position on the ban when lawmakers adopted "more scientific language" in the life of the mother provision in the bill in 2003.

Giuliani explained that he opposed the partial-birth abortion ban in the 1990s and supported President Clinton's two vetoes of it because he didn't think the life of the mother exception was strong enough.

Giuliani has opposed all bans on Partial Birth Abortion. The Republican ban that he opposed and Clinton vetoed DID contain nearly identical language making a completely unneccesary exception for the life of the mother. Giuliani is a liar.

1995 Language: "This paragraph shall not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury..."

2003 Language: "This subsection does not apply to a partial-birth abortion that is necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself. "

(Note: The additional language in the 2003 ban is redundant to the language that precedes it. It is utterly superfluous. It does not change the meaning of the section in any way.)

Rudy Giuliani Supports Partial Birth Abortion
Republicans Do Not!!!

Click HERE for Video of Giuliani in his own words.

[GEORGE] WILL: Is your support of partial birth abortion firm?
Mayor GIULIANI: All of my positions are firm. I have strong viewpoints. I express them. And I--I do not think that it makes sense to be changing your position....
ABC News February 6, 2000

---

TUCHMAN: Giuliani was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions, something Bush strongly supports.
GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.
- CNN December 2, 1999

---

BLITZER: If you were in the Senate and [President Clinton] vetoed, once again, the [ban on the] so-called partial-birth abortion procedure, you would vote against sustaining that against the -- in favor of the veto in other words, you would support the president on that.
GIULIANI: Yes. I said then that I support him, so I have no reason to change my mind about it.
BLITZER: All right. So the bottom line is that on a lot of these very sensitive issues whether on guns, abortion, patients' bill of rights, taxes, you are more in line with the president and by association, with Mrs. Clinton, than you are against them.
- CNN February 6, 2000

---

MR. RUSSERT: A banning of late-term abortions, so-called partial-birth abortions--you're against that?

MAYOR GIULIANI: I'm against it in New York, because in New York...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, if you were a senator, would you vote with the president or against the president? [Note: President Clinton was in office in 2000]

MAYOR GIULIANI: I would vote to preserve the option for women. I think that choice is a very difficult one. It's a very, very--it's one in which people of conscious have very, very different opinions. I think the better thing for America to do is to leave that choice to the woman, because it affects her probably more than anyone else....

MR. RUSSERT: So you won't change your view on late-term abortion in order to get the Conservative Party endorsement?

MAYOR GIULIANI: It isn't just that. We shouldn't limit this to one issue. I'm generally not going to change my views
- NBC Meet the Press, February 6, 2000

---

***Note: the version of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban that Giuliani opposed in 2000, that he said he supported Bill Clinton in vetoing the Republican-controlled Congress's legislation, contained the exception for the life of the mother that Rudy is now trying to pretend is a prerequisite for his support of it.

[007girl]

20% are for genetic reasons, and the other 80% are purely elective! Stop flip floppin’ and just admit that you support murder!

[juliej]

Look how the man refuses to back away from his overall support of abortion demand. I can support a ban on abortion, pba, and Rudy being the nominee of the GOP.

[Antoninus]

LOL. He really does think we’re stupid.

[juliej]

“I would vote to preserve the option for women” - he should have said for abortionists such as Tiller the Killer and Haskell. They could not care a rat’s tush about babies or their mothers - and neither does Rudy, for that matter. Does he actually know what happens during a partial birth abortion? That the baby is delivered to be killed?

[colorado tanker]

Man, this guy’s got more stories than Mrs. O’Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon.

[Cicero]

I was very interested in Giuliani’s candidacy during the early stages. He was a highly effective Mayor of New York, he turned the city around after decades of decay, he is a strong leader, he would be very good in the GWOT.

BUT.

He had a little problem with his past record on abortion. He needed to change his position if he wanted to run for the presidency. He has now made it clear that he refuses to change his position on this fundamental issue, which also throws into doubt his willingness to change on other issues such as gun control.

“I think you can be personally opposed to it. . . .”

This guy is again and again revealing himself to be a POLITICAL MORON on this issue. Good grief. Mario Cuomo may have gotten away with that line twenty or thirty years ago, but it sure as hell won’t fly now. It’s the oldest lie in the book.

Doesn’t he know that his poll numbers dropped when he started coming out with this cr*p. He’s killing himself, and he seems to be absolutely determined to commit political suicide. What a jackass.

[spikeytx86]

I appreciate you supporting my right to choose. It is a very intimate decision that no man should make for me. I just wish the government would keep it’s laws off of my itchy trigger finger.

(As a note to Keith Olberman and his attorneys, this is satire and not a threat. Though I find you to be a loathsome smarmy creature, If I was going to kill anyone it would be a 7 foot tall gangly Arab fellow in southwest Asia).

[Little Ray]

That’s funny. He only recently started opposing partial-birth infanticide. In fact he only changed his mind about the time he started running for President.

My problems with Guiliani are his liberalism and his lies about his Liberalism. I can actually forgive some of the liberalism - I’m not going to forgive his (and his supporters) blatant lies about it.