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Democrat debate includes no debate over support for abortion

Jun 27, 2019

By Dave Andrusko

With respect to last night’s first debate among 10 Democrats running for President, let me begin with something I never thought I’d write. NBC’s Savannah Guthrie opened the affair by actually asking Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) a substantive inquiry with just a little bit of an edge to it. And since Warren didn’t have an answer, she demagogued.

Forewarned is forearmed.

What about our issues? We’ll get to that in just two paragraphs. First a word about Tonight’s Round Two of Ten More Contenders.

This two hours will no doubt feature much more fireworks on abortion. Not because anyone has a pro-life bone in their body but because of former Vice President Joe Biden’s excruciatingly painful experiences over the last week or so.

You’ll recall he capitulated to NARAL and Planned Parenthood, flip-flopping from support for the Hyde Amendment to opposition. (So much for the two million babies saved by eliminating almost all federal funding of abortion.) He will be called to task for his heresy and Biden will doubtless say, “But I’ve seen the light!”

However, the most interesting development may be whether anyone asks Biden about a devastating investigatory piece in this week’s Washington Post. The headline to Matt Viser’s story read, “Once the poorest senator, ‘Middle Class Joe’ Biden has reaped millions in income since leaving the vice presidency.” (One sample: “[S]ince leaving office he has enjoyed an explosion of wealth, making millions of dollars largely from book deals and speaking fees for as much as $200,000 per speech, public documents show.”)

Back to Wednesday night. What did Elizabeth Warren have to say? To his credit, NBC News’s Lester Holt asked

Senator Warren, would you put limits on — any limits on abortion?

WARREN: I would make certain that every woman has access to the full range of reproductive health care services, and that includes birth control, it includes abortion, it includes everything for a woman. (APPLAUSE)

And I want to add on that. It’s not enough for us to expect the courts to protect us. Forty-seven years ago, Roe v. Wade was decided, and we’ve all looked to the courts all that time, as state after state has undermined Roe, has put in exceptions, has come right up to the edge of taking away protections…

HOLT: Your time is up, Senator.

WARREN: We now have an America where most people support Roe v. Wade. We need to make that a federal law.

In other words, no!

In responding just before Warren, Julián Castro (who was President Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017) expanded abortion rights from women to “trans females.”

HOLT: Secretary Castro, this one is for you. All of you on stage support a woman’s right to an abortion. You all support some version of a government health care option. Would your plan cover abortion, Mr. Secretary?

CASTRO: Yes, it would. I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice. (APPLAUSE)

And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female, is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion.

More than that, everybody in this crowd and watching at home knows that in our country today, a person’s right to choose is under assault in places like Missouri, in Alabama, in Georgia. I would appoint judges to the federal bench that understand the precedent of Roe v. Wade and will respect it… (APPLAUSE)

… and in addition to that, make sure that we fight hard as we transition our health care system to one where everybody can get and exercise that right.

Much more than last night, tonight’s debate may well be worth watching.

Categories: Politics
Tags: abortion