It was a stunning admission for a hardcore abortion backer to make. Kirsten Gillibrand has described abortion as a "life and death" decision that women should have the right to make.
Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York, and a presidential candidate who is barely registering in the polls, made her astonishing recognition of what abortion is really about on today's Face the Nation.
Gillibrand thus implicitly acknowledges that there is a human "life" at stake in abortion. Yet she wants to give women the virtually unfettered power to choose "death."
Gillibrand spoke her "life and death" line in the context of commenting on laws in Alabama and other states that would restrict abortion rights.
Let's hope, without holding our breaths, that the next person to interview Gillibrand questions her "life and death" depiction of abortion. Did she really mean to acknowledge that abortion results in the death of a human life? If so, how can she reject virtually any restriction on a woman's power to choose death?
We can guess that like most feminists, this would exclude the baby and only consider the "life and death" of the mother. But most pro-life bills make an exception for the life of the mother, leaving you with the Obama position of women shouldn't have their lives be ruined and be "punished with a baby."
Note: Host Margaret Brennan did not hesitate or question Gillibrand on her "life and death" characterization of abortion. But Brennan did ask Gillibrand whether there's room in the Democrat party for people "who have a moral objection to abortion." Gillibrand granted that "there’s nothing wrong with having a religious perspective on this issue." Couldn't someone in the Democrat fold be secular and pro-life?
She continued: "But what I do not accept is any Democratic leader or candidate to not believe in full civil rights and human rights." for women. We cannot have Democrats who are running for office who do not believe in basic health care and civil rights for women. It-- it's just untenable, and it's unacceptable."
Translation: she supports a pro-choice litmus test for Dem candidates. Pro-life Dems need not apply.
Here's the transcript.
CBS
Face the Nation
5/19/19
10:52 am EDT
MARGARET BRENNAN: This is one of the most emotionally charged, divisive issues in politics, and it's a fight the President wants to have because it resonates with his supporters. So why are you embracing it?
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: This is nothing short of an all-out assault on women’s reproductive freedom. An effort to take away our basic human rights and civil rights. And make no mistake. The 30 states that are trying to unwind abortion rights are trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade—it's nothing more complex than that.
And they do not believe that women should have the right to make the most intimate, personal, life and death decisions. And I think it’s untenable. And I hope America's women are paying attention. Because President Trump has started a war on America’s women. And if it’s a fight he wants to have, it’s a fight he’s gonna have, and he’s going to lose.
