Rudy Giuliani: 'A Woman Has the Right to Choose' Abortion

NewsMax ^ | Feb 22, 2007 | NewsMax.com Staff

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Reagan, for instance, signed the pivotal '68 abortion bill in CA. And he didn't repent and come out as a pro-lifer until 1976, a year before his run for the GOP nomination.

BULLoney! That is wrong. Its been posted to ad nauseam. The year was 1967 when Reagan signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act into law. By 1968 Reagan had regretted his decision of the year before. Reagan opposed Roe V Wade after it became the law of the land through judicial fiat in 1973.

[George W. Bush]

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Jan. 10-12, 2003. N=1,002 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"Thinking more generally: Do you think abortion should generally be legal or generally illegal during each of the following stages of pregnancy? How about [see below]?"

In the first three months of the pregnancy:
Legal 66%
Illegal 29%
Depens (vol.) 3%
Unsure 2%

If we reduced abortions to only within the first trimester, a lot of this issue would go away. You might argue whether we should legislate giving sex information to parents if there was a strong preference toward boy children (as in China and other countries) because it would be in the public interest to see that male/female balance is maintained.

You should ask yourself whether Roe still seems so necessary in an era where birth control and sex education are universal and where morning-after pills are common. Just how many chances does a woman need to make a 'choice' as to whether it is a child or something with no more dignity than some fat cells to be removed by liposuction.

The entire picture with abortion, sex education, women's rights, morning-after pills has changed the debate since Roe was (ignorantly) decided in 1973.

[tumblindice]

Majority Opinion: "The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy."

But we're going to find one . . . .

"Whizzer" White was right.

[shibumi]

.....and WE have the right to vote for somebody else ping.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>"Whizzer" White was right.

So was J. Rehnquist:

"To reach its result, the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment. As early as 1821, the first state law dealing directly with abortion was enacted by the Connecticut Legislature. By the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, there were at least 36 laws enacted by state or territorial legislatures limiting abortion. While many States have amended or updated their laws, 21 of the laws on the books in 1868 remain in effect today."

[stuartcr]

Why is it ignorant? If no one has the right to end life, then why is it ok to send people to war...war OK, self-defense OK, murder not ok, abortion not ok.

The end result of all of them is the ending of a human life, why are some ok, and others not? Sounds like the right to end a life is relative to the situation.

[Lil Flower]

When are you guys ever going to learn that people don't like to be told what they can and can not do?

Really? Do you have a job? Do you have children? Let me clue you in just in case the answer is no. People may not "like" to be told what they can and cannot do, but they will have to get over it if they expect to function in a civilized society. If you have a job, you are told what to do, and if you don't do it, you are fired. And I hope to God if you have children, you tell them what they can or cannot do. You've also been told you cannot rob banks, or plow through a crowd with your car,etc. Do you have a problem being told that as well?

[LtdGovt]

How absurd. All civilized societies have laws telling people what they can't do. We don't let people "choose" murder, for example.

Civilized societies prevent citizens from harming other people's rights. However, there should be no concern for the small-minded so-called 'morality' of some people. If I want to gamble, or drink as much alcohol as I want to, then why should anyone be able to tell me not to do that? I propose that organisations like the Christian Coalition spend less time interfering in other people's lives, and more time on getting a life.

[George W. Bush]

NewsMax using the MSM definition of 'moderate'?!

NewsMax did a hit piece on Romney a while back, now pretty much debunked as false by Jay Sekulow and other conservatives.

The next issue came out with a theme of Rudy as the GOP candidate and suggested that NewsMax was Rudy Central for 2008. I think NewsMax may be pulling back from that position a bit. But I'm not surprised to see them call Rudy's leftwing record on gun control 'moderate'.

How can it be 'moderate'? It's exactly the same as the most extreme Dims and the Brady Bunch.

Sekulow on NewsMax, Romney and Rudy and the BSA flap: here

It is important to note that the next issue of NewMax Magazine has Rudy Giuliani on the front cover with the caption “Yes, Rudy Can Win!” in which there will be an article that the website claims “This special edition of NewsMax Magazine may become the playbook for the Giuliani presidential campaign.”

[stuartcr]

You're right, there is no comparison...but what about an innocent victim of war? or someone in the army? Who gets to determine the justness of the war? Is it ok for a draftee to take the life of another draftee in a different army, just because their leaders have decided so? The draftees did nothing wrong either.

[LtdGovt]

If we reduced abortions to only within the first trimester, a lot of this issue would go away. You might argue whether we should legislate giving sex information to parents if there was a strong preference toward boy children (as in China and other countries) because it would be in the public interest to see that male/female balance is maintained.

You should ask yourself whether Roe still seems so necessary in an era where birth control and sex education are universal and where morning-after pills are common.<

I do ask myself. I doubt that having an abortion is enjoyable. So I wonder why there are more than one million abortions each year, when they could easily use birth control. Of course, birth control sometimes fails, but that doesn't add up to one million abortions.

Why do you think that Roe is still necessary, even in an era where...

[harrowup]

No honest debater uses the expression "a woman's right to choose."

Really? According to Robert's Rules or what? You?

I'll tell you what, we'll just change that to "a person's right to choose" and when you get pregnant we'll understand.

When are you guys ever going to learn that people don't like to be told what they can and can not do?

Whatever happened to the conservative mantra that government should stay out of your affairs...and now you want the government to outlaw a woman's right to choose?

[jla]

On Wednesday, Giuliani reiterated his own position.

"I'd advise my daughter or anyone else not to have an abortion," Giuliani said.

The Quotable Rudolph W. Giuliani

The New York State Liberal Party on Rudy Giuliani:

Some ask, How can the Liberal Party support a candidate who disagrees with the Liberal Party position on so many gut issues? But when the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party's stance on a majority of such issues. He agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion.
--N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement Statement of R. Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989

On the Republican Party:

Mr. Rockefeller represented "a tradition in the Republican Party I've worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition."

--Rudy Giuliani
New York Times
July 9, 1992

What kind of Republican? Is [Giuliani], for instance, a Reagan Republican? [Giuliani] pauses before answering: "I'm a Republican."

--Village Voice
January 24, 1989

On Attending 1996 Republican Convention:

Rudy even expressed his pleasure when he wasn't invited to the Republican National Convention in San Diego. "If I take three or four days off from city business, I want to do it for a substantive purpose. It didn't seem to me any substantive purpose could be served by going to the Republican convention."

--Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani,
Page 459, Wayne Barrett

On Barry Goldwater:

He [Giuliani] described John Kennedy as "great and brilliant." Barry Goldwater was an "incompetent, confused and sometimes idiotic man."

--New York Daily News,
May 13, 1997

On President Bill Clinton:

Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, [Giuliani] told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." The Daily News quoted [Giuliani] as saying that March: "Whether you talk about President Clinton, Senator Dole.... The country would be in very good hands in the hands of any of that group."

Revealing at one point that he was "open" to the idea of endorsing Clinton, he explained: "When I ran for mayor both times, '89 and '93, I promised people that I would be, if not bipartisan, at least open to the possibility of supporting Democrats."

--Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani,
Wayne Barrett, Page 459

Rudy Giuliani's October 1994 Endorsement of Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo:

"From my point of view as the mayor of New York City, the question that I have to ask is, Who has the best chance in the next four years of successfully fighting for our interest? Who understands them, and who will make the best case for it?' Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It's a matter of choice. My choice is Mario Cuomo."

--Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City
Andrew Kirtzman, Page 133

Reaction to Giuliani Endorsement of Cuomo:

"Once again, Rudolph Giuliani has demonstrated that liberalism is the foundation of his political philosophy. While Giuliani sold a bill of goods to trusting Republicans and Reagan Democrats that he had abandoned his roots as a McGovern Democrat, in his endorsement of Mario Cuomo, Mr. Liberal himself, he has shown his true colors. Giuliani's argument that Cuomo will be better for the city has a hollow ring to it. Perhaps Rudy wants a governor who will sign over a blank check to constantly bail out the city from its fiscal problems. Giuliani knows, as do all New Yorkers, that Cuomo's liberal policies have been an economic disaster for our city and state."

"But Rudy doesn't care. He has proven he will do anything to stop the election of a conservative Republican - but he won't succeed."

--Michael Long, Chairman N.Y.S. Conservative Party Press Statement,
October 25, 1994

"[Quite] frankly, you have to understand the fact that Rudy Giuliani was a McGovern Democrat, he was endorsed by the Liberal Party when he ran for Mayor. In his heart, he's a Democrat. He's paraded all over this country with Bill Clinton and, in fact, he's very comfortable with Mario Cuomo. But what Rudy Giuliani wants is to be bailed out in the city, in the mess he's in, and everybody understands very clearly in politics that they struck a deal, that Mario's going to continue to be the big spender, save Rudy the options of raising taxes by pouring money statewide into the City of New York and bailing it out. Quite frankly, I predict that he will join the Democratic Party."

--Interview with Michael Long, Chairman N.Y.S. Conservative Party,
CNN Crossfire, October 25, 1994

On Gay Domestic-Partner Rights:

National Republicans can lump it if they don't like his new domestic-partners bill, Mayor Giuliani said yesterday.

"I really haven't thought about what the impact is on Republican politics or national politics or Democratic politics," Giuliani said.

The bill he submitted to the City Council would extend the benefits city agencies must grant to gay and lesbian couples.

"I'm proud of it," Giuliani said of the bill. "I think it puts New York City ahead of other places in the country."

--New York Daily News, May 13, 1998

On Gay-Rights\Gay Rights Bill:

Giuliani favors extended civil-rights protection for gays and lesbians. Giuliani urged, by letter, to the New York Senate Majority Leader to pass the state's first ever gay rights bill, but did it privately.

"I am writing to convey my support for the current legislation to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, and to urge you to allow the bill onto the floor of the Senate for prompt action."

"...It is my belief that we can penalize discrimination [against gays] without creating any potentially objectionable special privileges or preferential treatment."

--New York Post, June 5, 1993

Now Rudy Giuliani has jumped on the bandwagon, pressing the state Republican Party to release a gay-rights bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Marching in Sunday's [Gay Pride] parade, he has enlisted in the struggle to destroy the family. What a perfectly abominable springboard to seek high political office.

--Ray Kerrison
New York Post, June 30, 1993

Giuliani said homosexuality is "good and normal."

--Ray Kerrison
New York Post, July 7, 1989

On Gay Domestic Partnership:

"I have no objection to the concept of domestic partnership."

--Rudy Giuliani
Informed Sources
New York T.V. Show (PBS), May, 1992

On Abortion:

Leaflets distributed by the Giuliani campaign .... said that he opposes restrictions to Federal Medicaid financing for abortions and opposes the Hyde Amendment, which is intended to deny support for that financing.

--New York Times, June 18, 1993

"I'd give my daughter the money for it [an abortion]."

"I never called for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade."

--Rudy Giuliani
New York Newsday, September 1, 1989

As mayor, Rudy Giuliani will uphold a woman's right of choice to have an abortion. Giuliani will fund all city programs which provide abortions to insure that no woman is deprived of her right due to an inability to pay. He will oppose reductions in state funding. He will oppose making abortion illegal.

--New York Times, August 4, 1989

On Partial Birth Abortion:

Mr. Giuliani has said that New York State law should not be changed to outlaw the procedure.

-- New York Times, January 7, 1998

On School Choice:

"I wanted to know if he supports tuition tax credits and vouchers, which he doesn't."

--Sandra Feldman,
President of N.Y.C. Teacher's Union, 1993

On Taxes:

[Giuliani] says ruling out a tax increase is "political pandering."

--Newsday, August 31, 1989

On fighting terrorism:

Giuliani said he believed Clinton, like his successor, did everything he could with the information he was provided.

"Every American president I've known would have given his life to prevent an attack like that. That includes President Clinton, President Bush," the former mayor said outside a firehouse here. "They did the best they could with the information they had at the time." --September 27, 2006

[Spiff]

He doesn't just support a "woman's right to choose...
Rudy Giuliani Supports Partial Birth Abortion.

[GEORGE] WILL: Is your support of partial birth abortion firm?
Mayor GIULIANI: All of my positions are firm. I have strong viewpoints. I express them. And I--I do not think that it makes sense to be changing your position....
ABC News February 6, 2000

---

TUCHMAN: Giuliani was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions, something Bush strongly supports.
GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.
- CNN December 2, 1999

---

BLITZER: If you were in the Senate and [President Clinton] vetoed, once again, the [ban on the] so-called partial-birth abortion procedure, you would vote against sustaining that against the -- in favor of the veto in other words, you would support the president on that.
GIULIANI: Yes. I said then that I support him, so I have no reason to change my mind about it.
BLITZER: All right. So the bottom line is that on a lot of these very sensitive issues whether on guns, abortion, patients' bill of rights, taxes, you are more in line with the president and by association, with Mrs. Clinton, than you are against them.
- CNN February 6, 2000

---

MR. RUSSERT: A banning of late-term abortions, so-called partial-birth abortions--you're against that?

MAYOR GIULIANI: I'm against it in New York, because in New York...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, if you were a senator, would you vote with the president or against the president? [Note: President Clinton was in office in 2000]

MAYOR GIULIANI: I would vote to preserve the option for women. I think that choice is a very difficult one. It's a very, very--it's one in which people of conscious have very, very different opinions. I think the better thing for America to do is to leave that choice to the woman, because it affects her probably more than anyone else....

MR. RUSSERT: So you won't change your view on late-term abortion in order to get the Conservative Party endorsement?

MAYOR GIULIANI: It isn't just that. We shouldn't limit this to one issue. I'm generally not going to change my views
- NBC Meet the Press, February 6, 2000

---

***Note: the version of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban that Giuliani opposed in 2000, that he said he supported Bill Clinton in vetoing the Republican-controlled Congress's legislation, contained the exception for the life of the mother that Rudy is now trying to pretend is a prerequisite for his support

[MEGoody]

Are you saying that a majority of Americans has no respect for human life?

Anyone who is okay with killing innocent human beings just because they are 'inconvenient' has no respect for human life.

[hellbender]

What the heck does your libertarian rhetoric have to do with abortion, which IS murder of a human being?

None of the great figures of American history, who bequeathed us our Constitutional freedoms, were the least bit concerned about protecting your freedom to gamble, do drugs, or be drunk. Local and state governments were perfectly free to control such antisocial behavior, and did so.

[MEGoody]

Whatever happened to the conservative mantra that government should stay out of your affairs...and now you want the government to outlaw a woman's right to choose?

People have the ability to choose to do all kinds of things. A man might decide to kick a woman in the stomach until she miscarries.

Just because someone has the ability to choose to do something doesn't mean that choice should be legal. Abortion takes and innocent human life. It should be illegal except in cases where the mother's life is medically at stake.

[pgkdan]

When are you guys ever going to learn that people don't like to be told what they can and can not do?

Oh for crying out loud! Take that argument to it's logical conclusion and you have chaos and anarchy! People don't like being told what to do? Tough! Ever since before Moses came down from the mountain murder has been illegal in all societies with even a vestige of civilization. As far as I'm concerned it still is.

[George W. Bush]

Reagan opposed Roe V Wade after it became the law of the land through judicial fiat in 1973.

Find me any source that shows he publicly committed to a pro-life and anti-choice position prior to 1975. I'm not talking about things his biographers later said that there is no evidence for.

When was his first public anti-abortion pro-life speech or writings done? I know we can find them in 1975 and afterward. I can't find them before. So you show me where Reagan wrote at the time or spoke out as a pro-lifer before 1975.

[George W. Bush]

Why is it ignorant? If no one has the right to end life, then why is it ok to send people to war...war OK, self-defense OK, murder not ok, abortion not ok.

This forum doesn't exist to explain these things to people who are that stupid. I don't think you actually are. You're just being a contrarian and don't realize how weak your argument is.

If you want to make such an argument, don't argue it on the basis of self-defense or wars in general.