I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.
I applaud the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gonzales v. Cathcart forbidding the gruesome practice of partial birth abortion. While I am optimistic that we are turning the tide in favor of life, we still have many battles ahead of us to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and so it is vital that we elect a pro-life President.
No candidate has a stronger record on the sanctity of life than I do. I have always been actively and aggressively pro-life. I first became politically active when I helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it can to protect life.
As Governor, I used that Amendment to pass pro-life legislation. The many pro-life laws I got through my Democrat legislature are the accomplishments that give me the most pride and personal satisfaction. I banned partial birth abortion, I required parental notification, I required that a woman give informed consent before having an abortion, I required that a woman be told her baby will experience pain and be given the option of anesthesia for her baby, I allowed a woman to have her baby and leave the child safely at a hospital, and I made it a crime for an unborn child to be injured or murdered during an attack on his mother.
What I accomplished as Governor proves that there is a lot more that a pro-life President can do than wait for a Supreme Court vacancy, and I will do everything I can to promote a pro-life agenda and pass pro-life legislation. If I'm saddled with a Democrat Congress, I'll veto any pro-abortion legislation they pass. I will staff all relevant positions with pro-life appointees. I will use the bully pulpit to change hearts and minds. I have no desire to throw women in jail, I just want us to stop throwing babies in the garbage.
To me, life doesn't begin at conception and end at birth. Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water. Every child deserves the opportunity to discover and use his God-given gifts and talents.
With respect to stem cells, I support federal funding of research using existing stem cell lines. I do not believe in creating life for the sole purpose of destroying it. I'm encouraged by recent discoveries showing that stem cells from the umbilical cord offer great promise.
One problem conservatives have to face is either we are for state’s rights or we are not. If we are then abortion would become one of those issues states decide. If it’s a national issue, then there needs to be a constitutional amendment passed since the constitution does not address it (the major problem with Roe v Wade).
My only point is there are numerous questions besides simply yes or no on Roe.
1) Amending the Constitution, these days, on any substantive issue, is impossible. You can't get 2/3rds of both houses to whistle 'Yankee Doodle' together, much less pass an amendment on an important issue in the fashion required by the Constitution. Therefore, the Human Life Amendment merely represents posturing, and one's support for or opposition to it just more posturing. Arguing over this type of amendments is just like arguing how many unicorns can fit atop a desk.
2) Huckabee's position on the morality (or not) of abortion, as well as his analogy to slavery, is valid (and I share it), but irrelevant to the Consitution. Amendment X is very specific, to wit:
'The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'
The Constitution says nothing whatever about abortion, either explicitly or implicitly. Therefore, the United States has no lawful, Constitutional authority to legislate upon the issue. Period.
Of course, we all know how scrupulously (cough, choke) the Regress obeys the Constitution, as in their utterly unlawful creation of the Dep'ts of Education and Energy, to name but two examples.