Throughout the campaign cycle, reproductive rights advocates have been pushing since the primaries to get the presidential debate moderators to ask about abortion. Aside from the Republican primary candidates talking about shutting down Planned Parenthood, none of the Democratic primary debates and neither of the previous general presidential debates had included a single direct question about abortion.
Chris Wallace of Fox News was the one to break the silence — and it led to the longest and most substantive discussion of abortion that we’ve heard so far during the presidential debates.
It’s possible that debate moderators haven’t asked about abortion until now because they thought the issue was obvious and settled. But that’s not true, advocates point out. State abortion regulations are drastically restricting abortion access, and the makeup of the next Supreme Court could determine the fate of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to abortion — so it’s important to know where the candidates stand on these issues.
And even when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were both asked about abortion during a forum, their answers weren’t the same.
So here’s what we learned about both candidates from their answers on abortion:
Trump said he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade — but he seemed reluctant to actually say so
“Mr. Trump, you're pro-life,” Wallace said. “But I want to ask you specifically, do you want the Court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade which includes — in fact, states — a woman's right to abortion?”
Trump replied: “Well, if that would happen, because I am pro-life and I will be appointing pro-life judges, I would think that that would go back to the individual states.”
Wallace pressed him on whether he wants to see the court overturn Roe.
“If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that will happen,” Trump said. “And that will happen automatically in my opinion because I'm putting pro-life justices on the Court.”
It wouldn’t exactly be “automatic” — it would depend on the right case being brought before the justices. But Trump has also made clear that he supports a 20-week ban on abortion, which could become just that case because it directly contradicts Roe.
Trump also made comments about late-term abortion — claiming Clinton thinks it’s okay to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month” — that suggests he has no idea how abortion or childbirth actually works.
Pro-life leader Charmaine Yoest approved of Trump’s answer:
Trump just nailed the first #prolife question! #debatenight
— Charmaine (@CharmaineYoest) October 20, 2016
Clinton gave a clear, forceful answer defending abortion rights
In her answer, Hillary Clinton did exactly what many advocates hoped she would. She (eventually) used the word “abortion” and not just euphemisms like “choice” or “women’s rights” — which advocates say is important in order to fight anti-abortion stigma.
And Clinton addressed the dire situation on the ground, with the “very stringent restrictions” in many states. Hundreds of anti-abortion laws passed in just the last few years are restricting women’s access to abortion and other reproductive health care in practice, even though Roe v. Wade is the law in theory.
And perhaps most remarkably, Clinton also made a strong emotional case for the right to abortion — which is unusual even for some pro-choice Democrats, many of whom prefer to talk about abstractions like “rights” and “choice.”
Clinton called Trump’s false statements about nine-month abortions “scare tactics,” and spoke about what later abortion really looks like in practice.
“I have met with women who toward the end of their pregnancy get the worst news one could get, that their health is in jeopardy if they continue to carry to term or that something terrible has happened or just been discovered about the pregnancy,” Clinton said. “I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions.”
“You should meet with some of the women that I've met with,” Clinton said to Trump.
She added that she’s been to “countries where governments forced women to have abortions like they did in China or force women to bear children like they used to do in Romania. I can tell you the government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith, with medical advice, and I will stand up for that right.”
Clinton also pointed out, correctly, that Trump said there should be “some form of punishment” for women who have abortions. (Trump walked that back later, but the practical impact of his policies would indeed lead to punishing women who have abortions.)
Wallace then asked Clinton “how far” she thinks the right to abortion goes. And Clinton responded, again correctly, that Roe v. Wade says “there can be regulations on abortion so long as the life and the health of the mother are taken into account.” And because that wasn’t the case when it came to outlawing so-called partial-birth abortions, she said, that’s why she voted against that bill. (The procedure was used rarely before it was banned, when doctors determined that it was necessary for the woman’s health.)
It was a fascinating exchange that revealed a lot about what both candidates believe on the issue of reproductive rights. And it showed why it probably shouldn’t have taken this long to have it.
