Hillary Clinton revealed Sunday that she opposed any legal limits on abortion, falsely claiming that terminations of late-term pregnancies take place out of "medical necessity."
On the CBS program Face The Nation, John Dickerson asked whether the Democratic presidential candidate supported barriers to abortion at any stage, in light of the Senate vote scheduled this week on a bill to ban the practice after the 20-week stage.
"This is one of those really painful questions that people raise, and obviously it's really emotional," Clinton said. "I think that the kind of late-term abortions that take place are because of medical necessity, and therefore, I would hate to see the government interfering with that decision. I think that, again, this gets back to whether you respect a woman’s right to choose or not, and I think that's what this whole argument, once again, is about."
The Weekly Standard's John McCormack wrote that Clinton’s contention was untrue, pointing to his own reporting on a study of more than 200 women who had abortions after 20 weeks for non-medical reasons. He reports:
So late-term abortions do occur in the United States for no medical reason at all. One prominent late-term abortionist in Maryland admitted on camera that he will perform "purely elective’ abortions through 28 weeks of pregnancy. Several states and the District of Columbia have no laws prohibiting abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. And the late-term abortion ban in Congress explicitly includes an exception for when a physical health issue—"excluding psychological or emotional conditions"—endangers the life of the mother.
A 2012 Gallup poll found that 80 percent of Americans think abortion should be illegal in the last trimester, with just 14 percent supporting its legality.
Full exchange:
JOHN DICKERSON: This week, the Senate's going to vote to impose a federal ban on late-term abortions. Do you support a federal limit on abortion at any stage of pregnancy?
HILLARY CLINTON: This is one of those really painful questions that people raise, and obviously it's really emotional. I think that the kind of late-term abortions that take place are because of medical necessity, and therefore I would hate to see the government interfering with that decision. I think that, again, this gets back to whether you respect a woman's right to choose or not, and I think that's what this whole argument, once again, is about.