2016 Vice-Presidential Debate: on Abortion
Bill Weld:
Supported abortion rights; moderate stance on social issues
As Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence square off in the only vice-presidential debate, there might be some curiosity about Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson's running mate Bill Weld. Weld, like Johnson, is a former Republican governor of a
Democratic-leaning state. He served as governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, and in 1994 won reelection by 71% of the vote in the most one-sided result in Massachusetts electoral history. As governor, he repeatedly cut taxes, while supporting
environmental issues, gay rights, and abortion rights.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.
Source: International Business Times: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate
Oct 4, 2016
Mike Pence:
We embrace life because we're better for it
KAINE: I think you should live your moral values. But the last thing, the very last thing that government should do is have laws that would punish women who make reproductive choices. And that is the fundamental difference between a Clinton-Kaine ticket
and a Trump-Pence ticket that wants to punish women who make that choice.PENCE: No, it's really not. Donald Trump and I would never support legislation that punished women who made the heartbreaking choice to end a pregnancy.
KAINE: Then why did Donald Trump say that?
PENCE: Look, he's not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton. Things don't always come out exactly the way he means them. But I'm telling you what the policy of our administration would be.
Donald Trump is standing for the right to life. We can create a culture of life. More and more young people today are embracing life because we're better for it, like Mother Teresa said at that famous national prayer breakfast...
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Mike Pence:
Partial-birth abortion is just anathema to me
My Christian faith became real for me when I made a personal decision for Christ when I was a freshman in college. I would tell you that for me the sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief that where God says, "before you were formed in the womb,
I knew you," and so for my first time in public life, I sought to stand with great compassion for the sanctity of life. But what I can't understand is with Hillary Clinton and now Senator Kaine at her side is to support a practice like
partial-birth abortion. I mean, 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.
Clinton wants to repeal the longstanding provision in the law where we said we wouldn't use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Tim Kaine:
Not role of public servants to implement religious beliefs
Hillary and I are both people out of religious backgrounds, but it is not the role of the public servant to mandate that for everybody else. We support Roe v. Wade. We support the constitutional right of American women to consult their own
conscience, their own supportive partner, their own minister, but then make their own decision about pregnancy. And we don't think that women should be punished, as Donald Trump said they should, for making the decision to have an abortion.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 09, 2018