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Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani, 107th Mayor Opening Remarks to the N.A.R.A.L. "Champions of Choice" Lunch The Yale Club, Thursday, April 5th, 2001 As Delivered Thank you very much for inviting me to say a few words of welcome. This event shows that people of different political parties and different political thinking can unite in support of choice. In doing so, we are upholding a distinguished tradition that began in our city starting with the work of Margaret Sanger and the movement for reproductive freedom that began in the early decades of the 20th century. As a Republican who...

Say it ain't so Rudy... The late New York Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was fond of saying that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Fellow New Yorker and GOP Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani might do well to take that to heart. During Wednesday's final debate in Des Moines before the Iowa caucuses, Giuliani was asked about abortion — never an easy question for a pro-choice candidate in a largely pro-life party. He's mostly managed to finesse the issue until now; professing his belief on the one hand, as he said at the debate,...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-abortion activist says Rudy Giuliani's attempt to moderate his pro-abortion views during the Republican presidential contest is a betrayal of his hard-core position backing abortion when he was New York City's mayor. As the mayor of the largest city in the nation, Giuliani could be counted on to support abortion. He supported taxpayer funding of abortions, gave a donation to Planned Parenthood, and repeatedly spoke in opposition to pro-life laws. Giuliani appointed Kelli Conlin to the city's Human Rights Commission, an irony not lost on pro-life advocates. Conlin, the head of NARAL's affiliate in...

Though activists attempt to corral presidential candidates, such as Rudy Giuliani, into a specific camp, beliefs today are much more nuanced. It’s no longer a black-and-white debate. The battle for the Republican presidential nomination might serve to clear away prevailing confusion and contradictions about public opinion on abortion. Rudy Giuliani seeks the White House by reaching out to that majority of Americans who say they are pro-choice — and anti-abortion...

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani prominently featured one such myth in his speech Oct. 20 to a group of social conservatives. The former New York City mayor stated that "we increased adoption by 133% over the eight years before I came into office. And we found that abortions went down by 18% during that period of time. I believe we can do that in the United States." But Giuliani's implied causality between these two statistics is unsupportable for this simple reason: The increases he cites were in the rate of adoptions of children out of New York City's foster care...

Giuliani and Roe [Ramesh Ponnuru] Somehow I missed a St. Petersburg Times story from earlier this month that sheds some light on the claims that Giuliani's social-conservative supporters are making for him. Bruce F. Berg, who chairs the political science department at Fordham University, has an archive that may be the envy of anyone interested in New York City politics. It documents every mayoral news conference in the city dating back to 1996. Berg has DVDs of what was said and how they said it, covering all but the first two years of the Rudy Giuliani era. Does he have...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani appears to have flip-flopped on what he thinks about the Supreme Court potentially overturning its landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. Giuliani hasn't suddenly become pro-life; instead, he told the Wall St. Journal he now won't answer the question of what he thinks. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published over the weekend, Giuliani was asked: “Roe v Wade, should it be overturned?” Giuliani demurred, saying, “I don't answer that because I wouldn't want a judge to have to answer that." "I think a conservative strict constructionist judge could...

After an assassination handed him the presidency and timing placed him on a national stage consumed by corruption, Teddy Roosevelt took action and redefined the president's power to impact the marketplace of ideas and move the hearts of men. To the Rough Rider, the moral authority of the White House had been sullied by the corruption of the Grant and Hayes administrations and rendered impotent by the sit-on-your-hands administrations of Garfield, Harrison, Arthur and Cleveland. And while the White House lay occupied by men unwilling to lead, the nation lost its way. But with TR, there was a new sheriff...

- Jeffrey T. Kuhner is the editor of Insight (www.insightmag.com). Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy threatens to shatter the Republican Party. The former New York mayor remains the party’s front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination. If this trend continues, his victory will mark the end of the modern GOP. Ever since Barry Goldwater, the Republicans have become the country’s conservative party. The party stands not only for limited government, low taxes, capitalism and strong national defense, but for something even more fundamental: God, family and bourgeois civilization. The GOP has been the only national political institution willing to defend Judeo-Christian morality from...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani knows his pro-abortion views don't go over well with a Republican Party whose membership is largely pro-life. He's tried to deflect criticism in recent weeks by saying he "hates" abortion -- reminiscent of the attempts other candidates have made to highlight their personal opposition to abortion. "I hate abortion," the ex-New York City mayor has said repeatedly, then adding, "people ultimately have to make that choice. If a woman chooses that, that's her choice, not mine. That's her morality, not mine." Yet, the "personally opposed but" position that emphasizes an opposition to abortion but...

As conservatives watch the second GOP presidential debate tonight, they surely will hear plenty about abortion. Rudolph W. Giuliani should detail what really happened to abortions while he was mayor of New York. The data present an encouraging picture of what he actually did as mayor and might do as president to promote abortion: Nothing. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute reports that abortions across America fell from 1,495,000 in 1993 to 1,303,000 in 2001, a 12.8-percent decrease. (Guttmacher’s surveys of all known U.S. abortion providers are more reliable than the Centers for Disease Control’s nationwide figures; California and New Hampshire stopped...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham yesterday that the reason he donated to Planned Parenthood in the 1990s was because he supports choices that pregnant women face when considering whether to give birth or abort. Catholic League president Bill Donohue wants to know more: “If helping pregnant women make choices is the supreme issue for Rudy Giuliani, then he should be able to document all the checks he’s written to support Crisis Pregnancy Centers—not just Planned Parenthood. If he can’t, it is logical to conclude that the only real choice he thinks is...

Rudy Giuliani, the leading Republican candidate for president in 2008, has come under fire for making several donations to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, during the 1990s. The former New York City mayor defended those donations saying he only wanted to promote adoptions. Giuliani made a lengthy, uncomfortable appearance on Laura Ingraham's national radio program to give his side of the story. "Planned Parenthood makes [adoption] information available," Giuliani told Ingraham when she posed that question Tuesday. "It's consistent with my position." "I think it's wrong [but] I think there should be a choice. If there is going...

Rudy Giuliani is supposed to be the candidate of authenticity, the tough-talking former New York City mayor who sticks to his beliefs no matter what. But he is repeating a line that is so flagrantly insincere, it makes any of Hillary Clinton's canned talking points seem free and natural by comparison. Giuliani claims he "hates abortion." Oddly, this hatred didn't manifest itself until Giuliani realized he had to have something to say to pro-lifers besides that he supported abortion on demand in any circumstance. Giuliani has been pounded by pundits for his answers on abortion at the first GOP debate....

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Rudy Giuliani got tangled up in the hot-button issue of abortion last night, saying in the first GOP presidential debate it would be "okay" if a woman's right to abortion were overturned - then made several attempts to explain himself. Giuliani, who was staunchly pro-choice during his eight years as mayor, seemed surprised when asked about the possibility of repealing the 1973 Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision that protects a woman's right to choose abortion. "It would be okay to repeal," Giuliani said, then quickly added, "Or it would be okay also if a strict...

Giuliani says repeal of abortion law would be "OK" (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson) May 4, 2007 SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - To Sam Brownback, it would be "a glorious day," and to Tom Tancredo the "greatest day in this country's history." For Rudolph Giuliani, repeal of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion "would be OK." "It would be OK to repeal," said Giuliani, New York's former mayor, contending with his record of support for abortion rights as he courts conservative Republicans. "I think the court has to make that decision and then the country can deal with it. We're a federalist system...

Alone among 10 Republican presidential contenders, Rudy Giuliani said in campaign debate Thursday night "it would be OK" if the Supreme Court upholds a 1973 abortion rights ruling. "It would be OK to repeal it. It would be OK also if a strict constructionist viewed it as precedent," said the former New York city mayor, who has a record of supporting abortion rights. His nine rivals agreed that it would be a great day if the court overturns the landmark ruling. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney acknowledged he had changed his mind on the subject when he began to delve...

HENNIKER, N.H. -- Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani defended his positions on a late-term abortion procedure and gun control Tuesday as he faced skeptical GOP voters who questioned his sincerity. "I don't think there's an inconsistency," the former New York mayor said of his long-standing support of abortion rights and his affirmation last week of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortion, a measure he opposed in the past. Once an advocate of strong federal gun controls, Giuliani also disputed the characterization that he advised President Clinton on the matter, talked of leaving...

MAYOR GIULIANI DELIVERS REMARKS AT NARAL'S 16TH ANNUAL AWARDS RECEPTION Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tonight joined the members of the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League of New York State (NARAL/NY) for the group's 16th Annual Gala Awards Reception at B. Smith's Restaurant in Manhattan. This year's awards were presented to Wendy Mackenzie, for her work in several pro-choice organizations; Department of Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg for promoting a policy that reproductive healthcare must be viewed as part of the overall scope of healthcare; Christy Haubegger, founder of the bilingual magazine Latina, which tackles issues like abortion and birth...

MAYOR GIULIANI OBSERVES ANNIVERSARY OF ROE VS. WADE; DENOUNCES ABORTION CLINIC BOMBINGS Addresses National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today marked the 24th anniversary of the landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision with a luncheon address before the New York chapter of the National Abortion Rights and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) at the Harvard Club. In the address, he reiterated his support for abortion rights for women and denounced the recent wave of abortion clinic bombings as an example of "dangerous extremism." Also in attendance at the luncheon were Deputy Mayor Fran...