Condoleezza Rice Says She Is 'Mildly Pro-Choice,' 'Kind of Libertarian' on Abortion Issues, Washington Times Interview

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 14 Mar 2005 - 16:00 PDT

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday in an interview with reporters and editors from the... Washington Times described herself as "mildly pro-choice" and "kind of libertarian" on abortion issues, adding that she would not want the federal government "forcing its views on one side or the other" (Sammon, Washington Times, 3/12). Rice said she believes President Bush "has been in exactly the right place" on abortion, "which is we have to respect the culture of life and we have to try and bring people to have respect for it and make this as rare a circumstance as possible" (Allen, Washington Post, 3/13). However, she added that she has been "concerned about a government role" but has "tended to agree with those who do not favor federal funding for abortion, because I believe that those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund" the procedure. Rice said she also is a "strong proponent of parental notification" and "a ban on late-term abortion." She added, "These are all things that I think unite people, and I think that that's where we should be." Rice, who is the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher, called abortion an "extremely difficult moral issue" that she said she approaches as a "deeply religious person" (Washington Times, 3/12). She said that abortion "should be an issue pretty infrequently because we ought to have a culture that says that, 'Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?'" Rice has been quoted as having a "mildly pro-choice" stance on abortion since an August 1999 National Review profile, according to the Post (Washington Post, 3/13). When asked about speculation that she might run for president in the 2008 election, Rice said, "I never wanted to run for anything. ... I'm going to try to be a really good secretary of state; I'm going to work really hard at it. I have enormous respect for people who do run for office. It's really hard for me to imagine myself in that role" (Washington Times, 3/12).

Rice on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday discussed her comment to the Times and her position on abortion and related issues (Russert, "Meet the Press," NBC, 3/13). The complete transcript of the program is available online. A video excerpt of Rice's comments is available online in RealPlayer.

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