Bill Weld on Abortion Libertarian Party nominee for Vice Pres.; former GOP MA Governor; 2020 GOP Presidential Challenger

Long record of support for abortion rights

Remove anti-abortion language from GOP platform

• Weld publicly fought to remove anti-abortion language from the Republican Party platform in the 1990s, to the dismay of social conservatives.
• Weld's liberal stance on social issues often earned him the ire of the GOP, and helped block his nomination to be ambassador of Mexico under President Bill Clinton.

Supported abortion rights; moderate stance on social issues

Things would go downhill for Weld after resigning in 1997 after being nominated to be ambassador to Mexico by President Bill Clinton. His nomination would be stalled by conservative N.C. Senator Jesse Helms, who objected to Weld's moderate stance on social issues. Weld would later make a failed bid to unseat Democrat John Kerry in the 1996 U.S. Senate election, and in 2006, he unsuccessfully ran in New York as a gubernatorial candidate.

Clinic access is guarding a fundamental constitutional right

WELD: I think it's OK for the government to be involved in ensuring clinic access, because that's guarding a fundamental constitutional right of the individual. So that's not the nanny state; that's good government, not bad government.

OpEd: pro-choice stance means ineligible for ambassadorship

Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and staunch defender of faith, freedom and family, has refused, on the basis of Weld's record, to conduct a hearing on the nomination.

Weld has resigned the governor's seat to fight Helms over the nomination. The battle is being described as a struggle for the philosophical soul of the Republican Party. In announcing his resignation, Weld blasted Senator Helms, saying that his opposition to the nomination "has everything to do with the future of the Republican Party." Weld and his supporters have declared war on the pro-life, conservative mainstream of the Republican Party. [Sen. Helms won the battle and Gov. Weld was never appointed Ambassador].

Partial-birth abortion is terrible, but don't ban it

• On May 2, 1992, then-Governor William Weld testified on behalf of a pro-abortion legislative package. In an effort to protect abortion rights in Massachusetts regardless of whether or how the Supreme Court eventually rules, Weld said he would allow women to terminate pregnancies through the ninth month, calling late abortions "a price I would pay in order to have government stay out of the thicket." (Boston Herald, 5/6/92)
• In 1996, Governor Weld ran against liberal, pro-abortion Senator John Kerry (D-MA) for the U.S. Senate. Senator Kerry voted to uphold President Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Governor Weld said that he would have voted the same way as his opponent. "It's a terrible procedure and I wish that it would never occur, but I would have voted the same way." (Boston Herald, 9/9/96)

Pro-choice point of view is shared by the GOP majority

Pro-choice despite the Republican pro-life party platform

Weld also parts with many Republicans over abortion, drawing national media attention during the Republican National Convention for his pro-choice statements, in opposition to the party's platform.

Support a woman’s right to choose as an individual freedom

Establish state pro-choice laws in case Roe gets overturned

Some states, like New York, had laws permitting abortion before Roe; but in New Hampshire, the Governor has vetoed a bill to repeal a pre-Roe criminal abortion law. A national standard, like Roe, is thus preferable to uneven state laws. Women who could afford travel could go to states where abortion is legal. The poor would wind up with the back-alley abortionist.

Ideally, women's reproductive freedom will remain America's law and policy. But failing that, people will have to look to their state governments. Governor Weld offers an admirable example.