Women's Issues in the Debate
Vice Presidential Debate Excerpt: Abortion
The complete transcript of the Vice Presidential debate is available from the The Commission on Presidential Debates
Vice Presidential Debate: October 5, 2000
Bernard Shaw:
Mr. Secretary, this question is for you. Would you support the effort
of House Republicans who want legislation to restrict distribution of the
abortion drug RU-486?
[The approval] really was a
question of whether or not it was
safe ... They didn't address ...
whether there should or should not
be abortion in the society
|
Dick Cheney
The abortion issue is a very tough one, without question, and a very
important one. Governor Bush and I have empathy. We want to reduce the
incidence of abortion on our society. Many on the pro-choice side have
said the same thing. Even Bill Clinton has advocated reducing abortion
to make it as rare as possible. With respect to the question of RU-486,
we believe that -- of course, that it's recently been approved by the
FDA. That really was a question of whether or not it was safe to be used
by women. They didn't address the sort of the question of whether or not
there should or should not be abortion in the society so much as evaluate
that particular drug. What we would like to be able to do is to look for
ways to reach across the divide between the two points of view and find
things that we can do together to reduce the incidence of abortion. Such
things as promoting adoption as an alternative. Encouraging parental
notification. And we also think banning the horrific practice of partial
birth abortions is an area where there could be agreement. Congress has
twice passed by overwhelming margins, a significant number from both
parties, the ban on partial birth abortions. Twice it's been vetoed by
Bill Clinton and Al Gore. We hope eventually they would recognize that's
not a good position for them to be in. With respect to the RU-486
proposal, at this stage I haven't looked at that particular piece of
legislation. Governor Bush made it clear the other night he did not
anticipate that he would be able to go in an direct the FDA to reverse
course on that particular issue, primarily because the decision they made
was on the drug, not the question of whether or not it would support
abortion.
No, I would not support
legislation that is being
introduced in Congress to
override the FFDA decision.
|
Joe Leiberman
It's a very important question and one on which these two tickets have
dramatically different points of view. My answer is no, I would not
support legislation that is being introduced in Congress to override the
Food and Drug Administration decision on RU-486. The administration, FDA
worked 12 years on this serious problem. They made a judgment based on
what was good for women's health. A doctor has to pescribe and care for
a woman using it. I think it's a decision we ought to let stand because
it was made by experts. But let me say more generally that the
significant difference here on this issue is that Al Gore and I respect
and will protect a woman's right to choose. Our opponents will not. We
know that this is a difficult personal, moral, medical issue, but that is
exactly why it ought to be left under our law to a woman, her doctor and
her God. Now, one area in which we agree, Al Gore and I, we believe that
the government ought to do everything it can to reduce the number of
unwanted pregnancies. And, therefore, the number of abortions.
Incidentally, here there is good news to report. The number of abortions
is actually down in America over the last eight years. In fact, over the
last eight years the number of teenage pregnancies has dropped 20%. And
the reason it has is that there are good programs out there that Al Gore
and I will continue to support, such as family planning and programs that
encourage abstinence. But when the health of a woman is involved, I
think the government has to be respectful. I supported, in fact, a bill
in the Senate that would have prohibited late-term abortions except in
cases where the health or life of the mother was involved. I did not
support the so-called partial birth abortion bill because it would have
prohibited that form of abortion at any stage of the pregnancy regardless
of the effect on the health and life of the woman. That's unacceptable.
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