House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued in the past that the government should not support groups that advocate for or perform abortions, but her position, along with those of a large cohort of Democrats, has changed dramatically.
“No funds could go to organizations that in the course of family planning advocate, promote or perform abortions,” Pelosi said on the House floor Oct. 7, 1997 in support of a “Global Gag Rule,” also known as the Mexico City Policy, mandating that overseas organizations receiving U.S. aid do not promote abortion.
Now Pelosi calls a ban on late-term abortions a sad event. “It’s really quite a sad thing when you know that we’ll be talking about something that applies to the health and life, health and ability to have other children of women,” she told The Daily Caller Feb. 6.
A number of Democrats in 2019 have lauded late-term abortion as a women’s prerogative and introduced measures aimed at permitting women to have abortions until birth.
Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam made remarks in January appearing to condone infanticide and late-term abortion. His comments centered around Virginia Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran‘s proposal, HB 2491, which would repeal the state’s current restrictions on late-term abortions and allow a woman to abort her baby even while dilating.
New York passed the Reproductive Health Act Jan. 22 codifying a woman’s right to abort under state law and allowing women to have abortions after 24 weeks to preserve the mother’s mental health. Maryland, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Mexico are also considering similar bills expanding abortion access.
Merely a decade ago, Democrats held a very different stance on abortion. “With respect to partial-birth abortion, I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions, partial-birth or otherwise,” former President Barack Obama said at a presidential debate in New York on Oct. 15, 2008. (RELATED: Capitol Hill Democrats Respond To Late-Term Abortion Debate Within Party)
“We can support a woman’s right to choose that makes abortion safe, legal, and rare, and reduces the number of abortions,” former Democratic presidential nominee and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said July 25, 2005 in an address to the Democratic Leadership Council.
WATCH:
“Washington Democrats embrace of partial birth abortion puts them well outside the mainstream, and it is another sign of the Democrat Party’s drastic move to the radical left,” Republican National Committee spokesman Steve Guest told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email Friday.
Seventy-five percent of Americans support significant abortion restrictions and say abortion should not be legal after a woman is three months pregnant, according to a Jan. 15 Marist poll.
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