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Giuliani willing to lose votes over pro-choice stance
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Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani answers questions at a Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that he is comfortable to lose the votes of pro-life conservatives who oppose his call for public funding of abortion.
“If that’s the most important thing, then I’m comfortable with the fact you won’t vote for me,” the former New York mayor said at a news conference in South Carolina.
The remark came one day after Giuliani sparked outrage among pro-lifers by reaffirming his support for taxpayer-funded abortions. In a TV interview on Wednesday, Giuliani stood by his 1989 call for such funding.
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Giuliani said Wednesday that he would carry that conviction with him into the White House.
“That’s my view,” he said, even as he noted his personal distaste for abortion.
“Abortion is wrong,” he said. “Abortion shouldn’t happen. But, ultimately, it’s a constitutional right.”
“So you support taxpayer money or public funding for abortion in some cases?” a reporter asked.
“If it would deprive someone of a constitutional right, yes,” the candidate replied. “If that’s the status of the law, then I would. Yes.”
At Thursday’s news conference, Giuliani was unapologetic about alienating pro-lifers with his pro-choice views.
“I tell people what I think,” he said. “I tell them [to] evaluate me as I am and do not expect them to agree with me on everything. I don’t agree with me on everything.”
American Life League President Judie Brown called on U.S. bishops and priests to rebuke Giuliani, who is Catholic, for his pro-choice statements.
“His position is an insult to the Catholic Church in which he claims membership,” Brown said.
bsammon@dcexaminer.com
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Examiner Reader said:
It seems ironic that we keep electing commanders in chief and their counterpart VPs who declined to put themselves in harms way when it was their turn. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney all took paths to avoid military service that would have placed themselves in any kind of dangerous duty, yet are/were willing to put others in that same situation. Giuliani fits that same mold, he seems eager to prove that he can protect me..what a joke...a draft dodger that wants to "protect" anyone when he avoided it when it was his turn. John McCain and Ron Paul are the only candidates I would trust in that position.
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Mike Licht said:
So under President Giuliani, families making under $30,000 will be paid a negative income tax by the government, right? Hey, Republicans just became Social Democrats. Good thing we avoided (gasp) socialized medicine.
290 agree | 272 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
giulani and romney were cowards and want to say they want to fight in iraq, let them go there by themselves and fight the enemy, they then could prove to us they are not cowards.
324 agree | 316 disagree
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Dan H. said:
Giuliani is just another chickenhawk who is all to eager to ask others to make sacrifices he wouldn't. His claims that he is the best option to prosecute a war on terror and that ALL dems are weak kneed is just laughable. Giuliani avoided the war in Vietnam just like Cheney did and just like I did, and it makes his calims of being the only one with the cajones to lead us in war sound hollow and false. I guess he thinks his politically expedient photo-op walk thru Manhattan during 9-11 qualifies him as a tough leader against our enemies but that is not the case. It was the least he should have done since he did little else to protect the city, a known target of terrorists, in the 8 years following the first failed attack on the WTC. That he uses that staged performance to promote his candidacy confirms he is weak in conviction, lacking of moral fiber, bereft of ideas and nothing more then a political hack who will use anyone's pain, blood or sorrow to further his own ambitions.
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