MSNBC's 'Hardball' Features Discussion On 'End Of The Culture Wars' Over Abortion

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 09 Mar 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on Thursday included a discussion with Slate correspondent William Saletan and Kenneth Blackwell, chair of the Coalition for a Conservative Majority and a senior fellow at the Family Research Council. Matthews said that President Obama has suggested that he "wants to put an end to the culture wars." The interview focused on opinions put forward by Saletan in a recent op-ed in the New York Times in which he urged Obama to "start with abortion" as a means to this goal.

In Thursday's "Hardball" discussion, Saletan said that "the idea is, we want ... a pro-life end, which is a reduction in the number of abortions in this country, by pro-choice means." He continued that "you do that by focusing on contraception, but not just in the liberal way of talking about contraception, handing out birth control." He said that "[b]irth control is a practice" that "requires moral responsibility" and "people making the right choices, the kind of thing that conservatives talk about."

Blackwell said, "[W]e want to reduce the number of abortions. But the ultimate goal is that we want to end abortions as a practice in this country" (Matthews, "Hardball with Chris Matthews," MSNBC, 3/5).

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