Posted on 04/05/2007 11:53:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Thursday defended his record favoring the use of public money for abortions, saying he wouldn't try to undo a Supreme Court ruling allowing the procedures.
"Ultimately I believe it's an individual right and a woman should make that choice," the former New York mayor said during a Statehouse news conference where he picked up three endorsements.
Support for abortion rights is unpopular with conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, an early voting state.
"I tell people what I think. 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," Giuliani said. "If that's the most important thing, then I'm comfortable with the fact you won't vote for me."
The comments came as South Carolina lawmakers push a measure that would require women seeking abortions to first view ultrasound images of their fetus. If the South Carolina measure is approved, the state would be the first to make such a requirement. Other states require the images be made available to women.
Giuliani said states should make the call on such issues. "The Legislature of South Carolina should make its decision about that," he said. He also said states should make the decision whether to use public money for abortions.
Conservatives and political experts in South Carolina said Giuliani's moderate stance abortion will hamper his ability to win votes here.
"He's toast," said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard. "I think it's going to be really hard for him to overcome this in South Carolina."
While Republicans in South Carolina oppose abortion by degrees -- allowing abortions in certain circumstances, such as a mother's health, rape or incest -- there's little room on public financing, said Oran Smith, executive director of the Palmetto Family Council, an anti-abortion group.
"That's usually one of the first things off the list when you talk about things related to abortion," Smith said.
Some Giuliani supporters said the abortion issue doesn't bother them. "I'm really for the whole package. I feel like I'm comfortable being for him," said Rosemary Byerly, a staunch abortion opponent from Inman.
But Alexia Newman, a state Republican Party first vice chairwoman who runs Spartanburg's Carolina Pregnancy Center, said she felt duped by Giuliani's recent comments to the state Republican executive committee that if elected he would appoint judges who favor a strict interpretation of the Constitution to the Supreme Court.
However, Giuliani said those comments weren't a nod in the direction of undoing Roe v. Wade.
"If I'm going to appoint strict constructionist judges, which I'm going to do, for the reason that they are going to strictly interpret the Constitution, then, as president, I have to be a strict constructionist," Giuliani said. "The present state of the law on these issues is not something that I would seek to change."
Giuliani also said the state should be left to make its own decision about the Confederate flag, which flies outside the Statehouse.
You are in a tiny minority. As people find where Rudy stands on the issues, Southerners, Midwesterners and Social Conservatives nationally will abandon him. Watch it all unravel before your eyes. Mark down today’s date as the day the wheels fell off the Rudy wagon.
I agree that abortion should be decided at the state level (as should many other things that currently aren’t). But in order for that to happen, Roe v. Wade has to be overturned and this whole bogus concept of the SCOTUS sticking its nose into state matters has got to be reined in. If Giuliani is willing to go along with that, fine. If not, that’s going to be a problem. Stare decisis is not something that should be used to protect a bad ruling (Dred Scott, anyone?). That’s a cop-out.
I’m pro-life, and disagree strongly with Giuliani on this issue (and on the Second Amendment) but agree with him on others, and do respect him regardless. He’s not my first choice, but if it comes down to it, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. Right now, the only Republican candidate that I 100% would NOT vote for, even if the alternative was Hitlery or Osama Obama, is John McCain.
}:-)4
Seems to many that the ultra liberal is what y'all are pulling for. Lots of folks expect to see the liberals on the left, not infiltrating the right.
actually the opposite is true.
And what would you be basing your assumption on? Rudy's good word?
YES I WOULD!
I have an individual right to be armed.
Can we use public money to buy me a .357 and a Mossberg?
How about a printing press?
And maybe a lecturn with a Bible?
Well, I admire your loyalty, but Rudy has not earned that level of trust from me on this issue. There are many admirable things he has done, but there are other candidates (and potential candidates) that I would trust just as much on the war, and would trust a lot more on other issues important to me, including judges. And with Rudy's latest comments, it is clear that he doesn't even care to address the issues that concern me. That is a political calculation he has made - I hope to help make him realize how bad a decision it was...
I’m pro-life, and disagree strongly with Giuliani on this issue (and on the Second Amendment) but agree with him on others, and do respect him regardless. He’s not my first choice, but if it comes down to it, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him. Right now, the only Republican candidate that I 100% would NOT vote for, even if the alternative was Hitlery or Osama Obama, is John McCain.
What you said. Though I would put an even stronger clamp on my nose and vote for McCain if he were the nminee as long as he had a good running mate. McCain is getting old and would probably die in office.
Done and done!
Translation: Rudy thinks he's a "strict construction" and by that he means someone who will continue to support Roe v. Wade.
As a practical matter I don't think there will be too many states -- if any -- that would criminalize abortion and aggressively prosecute doctors and women. The real issue is cultural, not legal.
I agree on that. Stopping the Beast and Obama is priority one. I have stated on many occasions that I will vote for the Republican nominee, whoever it is. I am not convinced it will be Rudy if he keeps alienating the base this way. This thread comes on the heels of one that shows the Beast overtaking Rudy in a new poll.
They are liberals. Liberals vote for liberals. They are pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro political correctness, pro gay rights, pro hate crimes laws, pro open borders. What else is there? Oh yes. Their beloved War on Terror. That’s the one where they shake down my mother in the airport over her asthsma medication. That’s the one where the perverts patted down my blonde, 50 year old wife. That’s the one where they held me up, a fat, bald guy, for a half hour in Chicago and let the muzzies whiz on by. That’s the one where we court martial our marines and insist that Islam is a “religion of peace.” Yeah, that War on Terror.
No way, Rudy-bots. Your playboy may be nominated, but the press and the Dems will eat him alive faster than they did our last moderate, Bobdole. A divided party is a defeated party. Rudy will draw from people who can abide eighty percent Democrats. The rest of us stay home.
And I still can’t wait to hear that lisp in the debates.
I see the Leftist media got to you. They are asking Rudy “Gotcha” questions to dissuade R’s from considering voting for him.
They want Clinton/Obama Osama Hussein for President.
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The media wants Hillary/Obama ,, sure ,,and they’re working against Rudy with “gotcha” questions ,, SURE ,,, but the media doesn’t have a clue ,, they think Rudy has a chance of going all the way... WRONG! ,, Rudy never had a prayer of winning the repub nomination ,, anyone with his record on gun control ,, showing ZERO RESPECT for the constitution cannot be believed when he says he will appoint constructionist judges ,, he would argue against the founders intent with Thomas Jefferson himself... He cannot be trusted and will never have my vote ,, I’d almost rather have an honest communist win..
Last time I checked this site covered politics. Mostly GOP politics. I wish you people would grow up a bit.
We can praise Rudy to our heart’s content right here. We also get the added bonus of watching the anti-Rudy caucus change their preferred candidate every month. So why leave? It wouldn’t make sense for the likely Republican nominee not to be discussed here.
So who is the fallback choice of the Rudy Haters when Fred Dalton Thompson doesn’t pan out?
Don’t you love it - this is classic “get out of my sandbox”
A shrink could make a living from this site alone...
You would support a Communist and yet we Rudy supporters are called "treasonous". Funny stuff.
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