Palin Discusses Opposition To Abortion Rights, Stem Cell Research During Interview

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 16 Sep 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Alaska Governor Sarah Palin discussed her opposition to abortion rights and support for overturning Roe v. Wade during her first major series of interviews since being selected as Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) running mate, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports (Fouhy, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/13). During the interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson, Palin "seemed to indicate" her opposition to human embryonic stem cell research although a McCain campaign radio advertisement released on Friday that said a McCain administration would support stem cell research, the New York Times reports (Luo, New York Times, 9/13).

In response to the question of whether Roe should be overturned, Palin said, "I think it should, and I think that states should be able to decide that issue. I am pro-life. I do respect other people's opinion on this also, and I think that a culture of life is best for America. What I want to do, when elected vice president, with John McCain, hopefully, [is] to be able to reach out and work with those who are on the other side of this issue" (Los Angeles Times, 9/13).

According to the AP/Star Tribune, Palin's statement that she believes states should decide abortion-rights issues is "incompatible" with a constitutional ban on abortion, which many social conservatives support. Although Palin's position on abortion rights is similar to that of McCain's, she parted with her running mate in expressing her opposition to allowing abortions in cases of rape or incest (AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/13).

~ Full excerpts from all three of Gibson's interviews with Palin are available online (ABC News, 9/13).

McCain Discusses Abortion Rights, Sex Education on ABC's 'The View'

McCain during a Friday appearance on ABC's "The View" said that the Supreme Court's decision on Roe was a mistake, Reuters reports. "I believe Roe v. Wade was a very bad decision, it was a bad decision," McCain said.

During the interview, McCain also was criticized for an advertisement that independent fact-checkers say has distorted Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) position on sex education (Szep, Reuters, 9/12).

The ad criticizes Obama's record and says that his only education-related accomplishment was supporting a comprehensive sex education measure in 2003 while in the Illinois Senate. The measure sought to require "age and developmentally appropriate" sex education that was medically accurate for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The ad asks, "Learning about sex before learning to read?" followed by, "Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family." The measure was comprehensive in that it would have required a curriculum from kindergarten to high school but would not have required kindergarteners to be exposed to the entire gamut of issues related to sexuality. In 2004, Obama said that he understood the objective of the bill as it pertained to kindergarteners was to protect them against sexual abuse. Obama at the time said he and his wife had discussed the "possibility of somebody touching" their two young daughters "inappropriately, and what that might mean." He added that such lessons were included in the measure so that "kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse" (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/11).

"The View" host Joy Behar told McCain that the ad and another campaign ad contain "lies," and McCain defended them as accurate (Szep, Reuters, 9/12).

Opinion Piece, Editorial Discuss Palin's Candidacy

An opinion piece and an editorial recently discussed Palin's views on women's health and other issues. Summaries appear below.

~ Dahlia Lithwick, Slate: According to Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate, the Supreme Court "might actually be a better fit" for Palin than the White House. Lithwick writes that Palin's "main concerns have been the hot-button social issues that cannot be settled by fiat in the executive branch. Palin wants to do away with abortion and strongly opposes gay marriage. She supports teaching creationism in schools and believes in promoting religious free expression. These are constitutional issues on which Republican presidents have been thwarted for decades and on which she would offer swift and certain fixes from the court." Lithwick adds, "Since the Supreme Court has often been the lone defender of the rights of women, gay couples, and atheists, installing a Sarah Palin there would do far more to undo these things than getting her into the White House ever could" (Lithwick, Slate, 9/13).

~ Washington Post: Palin's ABC interview did not disqualif[y]" her as a potential vice president, but it was "far from comforting," a Post editorial says. According to the editorial, Palin described abortion as "a very critical and very sensitive and a personal issue also for so many women," yet repeated her view that abortion should be illegal except when needed to save the life of a pregnant woman. The Post asks how Palin can "reconcile her understanding of abortion as a 'personal issue' with her view that the choice should be taken away from the pregnant woman?" The editorial concludes that overall, "this was an unsettling interview, with a frustrating lack of follow-up questions. Voters deserve more opportunities for more searching questions in the short time left before Election Day" (Washington Post, 9/14).

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