OnTheIssues interviews with presidential candidates: on Abortion

Paul Adams: Real Choice: public funding to carry pregnancy to term

A: I go a step further. I believe in introducing Real Choice for women. A woman should have the choice of obtaining a publicly-funded abortion or take her pregnancy to term and obtain a publicly funded delivery, with a view of giving up the baby for adoption. That would be true choice.

Marc Allan Feldman: No government role in restricting nor funding abortion

A: Support. Government currently should have no role in the promotion, financing, or prohibition of abortions. Get government out. There is no such thing as an "unrestricted right." Every right and every freedom is limited to the point where it infringes on the rights of others. Reproductive freedom does not include the right to tax others for our decisions. Change in practices should come about not through changing the laws, but by changing the hearts and minds of people.

Mark Stewart: Roe v Wade was a bad decision, legally & morally

A: Abortion is not an unrestricted right. Legally, it deserves to be restricted by states or even locales. That's why Roe v Wade was a bad decision: it took criminal punishment power away from states. (Also the Roe court was legislating, i.e. making law, when a court's job is to apply law). When states/locales can choose, some states will deem abortion a felony; some will deem a later term abortion "murder"; some will deem it a misdemeanor; some, sadly, will put no legal penalty on "mother" or abortionist.

Q: What about moral issues, beyond the legal issues?

A: Morally, it deserves to be censured by all. Abortion is at minimum a selfish act. A woman can do a beautiful thing by carrying a baby for an infertile couple. They will pay for her health care and more.In many cases it's a lot more

Jim Hedges: Abortion is a woman's unrestricted right

A: support

Roseanne Barr: Abortion is a woman's right

Q: Strongly Support

Virgil Goode: Not a woman's right; remember the life of the child

A: No, we must remember the life of the child.

David Walker: I strongly oppose partial birth abortion

A: Yes, and I strongly oppose "partial birth abortions".

Q: You support a woman's right to choose on legal grounds, while opposing it on moral grounds; so do you describe yourself as pro-choice or pro-life?

A: I usually describe my views as "pro life" while recognizing the difference between the moral from the legal dimensions.

David Walker: Morally wrong, but a woman's choice until viability

A: Support. From a moral standpoint, I believe abortion is wrong. I'm a practicing Roman Catholic, and not in name only. At the same time, from a legal standpoint, I believe it should be a woman's right up until the point the fetus is viable on its own. There's a difference between the moral and legal standpoints. You can't legislate morality. There's also a difference between church and state. Enforcement, in any case, should be on the physician.

David Walker: Enforce against doctors performing abortions after viability

Rocky Anderson: Abortion is a woman's right

A: Strongly Support

Andre Barnett: Opposes abortion as a woman's right

A: Disagree, very limited circumstances.

Robert Steele: Let states decide birth control and abortion laws

• This is a matter best left to the states
• Birth control medications should be available by prescription across the land, subject to state-based guidelines on age and parental rights.
• In cases of rape and incest, woman's right to avoid biological enslavement

Robert Steele: Supports abortion as a woman's right

A: Support. This is a matter best left to the states, where faith, culture, and law can be responsive to the community. In cases of rape and incest, the community should be respectful of the woman's right to her own freedom from biological enslavement.

JL Mealer: Abortion violates constitutional rights for our posterity

A: OPPOSE for the Constitutional Reason (see Preamble) that the US Gov't is to: "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." So, yes, the mother-to be has her "right to privacy" and YES, the unborn child has that right as well and is technically protected under Roe v Wade above the mother-to-be. So, NO on abortions; any abortion doctor would charged with murder.

Scott Keller: Woman's choice over her body, but not partial birth abortion

A: Personally, I cannot give a heartfelt yes or no answer to this question as worded. And I cannot give a short answer to it either as there are so many factors that have to be considered. The initial premise is relatively short: I believe a woman has the right to do with her body what she chooses. I also believe that once her choices or the choices of someone else's imposition themselves on her result in the creation of a new life, then the ensuing choices are imposing on the rights of someone else, namely the forming baby, who had no choice in the matter of being conceived. And those choices become increasingly dramatic as the baby gets closer to term, climaxing in something I absolutely am against which is the partial birth abortion. I find it hard to believe that anyone could willingly allow this last one much less perform it.

Scott Keller: Focus on alternatives: birth control & adoption

All of these factors can be dealt with if we simply focus on them and get people involved in the solution discovery process, especially women. Birth control is an obvious and known solution and it is not just a woman's responsibility. Vasectomies should be made extremely cheap or even free and should be encouraged especially now that they are reversible.

An alternative to abortion that I support is adoption. While a woman may not want or be able to take care of a child, giving that child an opportunity to live is still a wonderful thing to do. I support enhancing adoption and foster care services as an alternative to abortion.

Scott Keller: Pro-life, but it's the woman's right to choose

I personally believe it's a woman's right to choose to end the pregnancy, but I also believe there are options other than terminating the life, especially in late term pregnancies. I am pro life and that applies to ALL life and if there are options for accomplishing the same goal and preserving the life I will favor those options.

Socioeconomic factors like poverty are unfortunate and preventable reasons that motivate women to get abortions. Birth control is a highly effective solution to the issue of abortion, including surgical solutions such as vasectomies which are reversible.

My question for women is when they go to choose, do they want limited options or many options? Many of these options revolve around other topics such as the economy.

Brian Moore: Right to free abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy