Democratic Views on Abortion

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The Democratic Party believes firmly in a woman’s right to decide whether or not to abort a pregnancy. The Democratic views on abortion strongly support Roe vs. Wade, and include a woman being given the right to abort a pregnancy regardless of whether or not she is able to pay for it. The party strongly opposes any efforts or legislation that might undermine this right, stating, “abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, and her clergy; there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way.”

The Democratic Party and Abortion Prevention

While the Democratic Party believes every woman should be able to end an unwanted pregnancy, they do also support initiatives to decrease the number of unintended or unwanted pregnancies. Because of this they support sex education programs that explain birth control options and how couples can obtain them. They also support programs such as Planned Parenthood that help those in need of birth control options reduce the cost and feel comfortable asking questions. They do hope to reduce the number of abortions being performed, but not at the cost of a mother’s right to choose. The party has stated, “our goal is to make abortion more rare, not more dangerous. We support contraceptive research, family planning, comprehensive family life education, and policies that support healthy childbearing.”

The Democratic Party and Health Care Coverage

While Democrats believe that health care should make birth control and abortions affordable to all women, they also support providing financial aid to women who cannot financially support carrying a baby to term. They believe that every pregnant woman should be supported, “by providing affordable health care and ensuring the availability of and access to programs that help women during pregnancy and after the birth of a child, including caring adoption programs.” They believe that the way to “join 36 other industrialized nations in making sure everyone has access to affordable health care” is with health care reform. They hope to do this by “fixing the prescription drug program and investing in stem cell and other medical research.” On the topic of stem cell research, Democrats state, “we believe in investing in life saving stem cell and other medical research that offers real hope for cures and treatment for millions of Americans.”

Abortion and The American People

Abortion is an issue that many Americans struggle to form an opinion on. Many of those who do form an opinion hold one that sits between the policies of Republicans and Democrats. It seems that a majority of Americans support keeping Roe vs. Wade as the reigning abortion ruling, but would like to see more restraints regarding what circumstances abortion is allowed under.

The public has always been divided regarding abortion, but this divide has deepened and widened as political leaders have led the opinions of the two parties to diverge further over the issue. Between 1980 and 2008, the distance between the stances of Republicans and Democrats regarding abortion increased greatly. The public opinion, however, remained relatively stagnant. This means that it is becoming harder and harder as time goes by for voters to determine which party their opinions correlate with on the topic of abortion.

Obama on Abortion

President Obama has long been a supporter of letting abortion be a woman’s choice. As a state senator he voted “present” on a bill urging doctors to provide life support to fetuses that survived an abortion and were not expected to survive on their own. His argument was the bill would have provided legal protection to a “pre-viable” infant, which is outside of the realm of constitutional protection. He stands in strong support of Planned Parenthood and has sent foreign aid money to groups that provide abortions overseas. He has refused to use his presidential power to shut down a bill that would end gender-selective abortions.

Hillary Clinton on Abortion

Hillary Clinton is a strong proponent of making abortion safe but rare. She strongly supports initiatives that will decrease the number of abortions occurring, but still wants to see it as an option where unwanted pregnancy does occur. Clinton states, “I have spent many years now, as a private citizen, as first lady, and now as senator, trying to make it rare, trying to create the conditions where women had other choices.

I have supported adoption, foster care. I helped to create the campaign against teenage pregnancy, which fulfilled our original goal 10 years ago of reducing teenage pregnancies by about a third. And I am committed to do even more.” She sees abortion as such a complex issue that it must be decided by personal choice, stating, “for me, it is also not only about a potential life; it is about the other lives involved. And, therefore, I have concluded, after great concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years, that our task should be in this pluralistic, diverse life of ours in this nation that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society. And as some of you’ve heard me discuss before, I think abortion should remain legal, but it needs to be safe and rare.” Clinton is unique among many politicians in that she hopes and believes that there is common ground to be found on the abortion issue. In a speech to abortion rights supporters, Clinton simultaneously restated her pro-choice views and offered warm words to pro-life advocates, stating that there was common ground to be found between them.

Nancy Pelosi on Abortion

In strong contrast to Clinton’s party-bridging hopes for abortion stands Nancy Pelosi, who called pro-life advocates “dumb” during her acceptance speech for the Margaret Sanger award. Pelosi received the award for her work defending abortion rights. Her acceptance speech stated, “when you see how closed their minds are or oblivious or whatever it is—dumb—then you know what the fight is about. Whatever happens with the court…we must remember these battles will not be the end of the fight.”

Prior to Pelosi’s award ceremony, the pro-life community participated in a tweet-fest about Margaret Sanger’s history. Despite her work surrounding abortion, Sanger was a racist individual who referred to African Americans as “human weeds,” “reckless breeders,” “spawning… human beings who never should have been born.” Her abortion advocacy was largely based on her hope to “create a race of thoroughbreds.” It was most likely this social media campaign that sparked Pelosi’s anger at her opponents.

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