From their websites, our top 6 candidates' positions on abortion.

[pnwmom]

Of the top 6 candidates (in a number of polls), 5 have a website that includes a statement supporting a woman’s right to choose.

Here, in alphabetical order, are the candidates and the statements from their campaign websites.

JOE BIDEN

(I’ve heard him say in public that he supports a woman’s right to choose, but abortion isn’t included on his vision page with other important issues, or anywhere else on the site.)

https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/



PETE BUTTIGIEG

A woman should have the freedom to make medical decisions on her own or with the counsel of her doctor, family, and faith leaders — those whom she chooses and she trusts. The government's role should be to make sure all women have access to comprehensive affordable care, and that includes preventive care, contraceptive services, prenatal and postpartum care, and safe and legal abortion.

https://peteforamerica.com/issues/



KAMALA HARRIS

As president, Kamala will continue to champion the rights of women and girls. She’ll protect Planned Parenthood from Republican attempts to defund essential health services, nominate judges who respect Roe v. Wade, and immediately roll back dangerous and discriminatory rules put in place by President Trump to limit access to contraception and safe abortion in the United States and around the world.

https://kamalaharris.org/issue/gender-equality/


BETO O'ROURKE

“There is a nationwide assault on women’s reproductive freedom. . . . These increasingly radical and dangerous plans cannot be tolerated and, as president, Beto would leverage all three branches of the federal government to defend a woman’s right to chose, reverse and prevent laws and actions restricting women’s reproductive freedom, and increase funding for contraceptive care.”

https://betoorourke.com/choice/



BERNIE SANDERS

Fully fund Planned Parenthood, Title X, and other initiatives that protect women’s health, access to contraception, and the availability of a safe and legal abortion.
Oppose all efforts to undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade, and appoint federal judges who will uphold women’s most fundamental rights.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/fight-for-womens-rights/



ELIZABETH WARREN

Congressional action to Protect Choice:
Our democracy should not be held hostage by right-wing courts, and women should not have to hope that Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump’s Supreme Court will respect the law. Congress should pass new federal laws that protect access to reproductive care from right-wing idealogues in the states. Federal laws that ensure real access to birth control and abortion care for all women. Federal laws that will stand no matter what the Supreme Court does.

https://elizabethwarren.com/issues/?mkwid=sUg1Cny0B%7Cpcrid%7C344788346388%7Cpkw%7Celizabeth%20warren%7Cpmt%7Cp%7Cpdv%7Cc%7Cslid%7C%7Cproduct%7C%7Cpgrid%7C67729921872%7Cptaid%7Ckwd-171777258%7C&pgrid=67729921872&ptaid=kwd-171777258&source=WFP2019-LB-GS-WA&subsource=GS-67729921872-elizabeth%20warren-p-344788346388&utm_source=GS&utm_campaign=WFP2019-LB-GS-WA&utm_term=Elizabeth%20warren-344788346388&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPqG9KPA4gIVkfhkCh3hRwmMEAAYASAAEgIwrvD_BwE&refcode=WFP2019-LB-GS-WA&refcode2=GS-67729921872-elizabeth%20warren-p-344788346388#latest-announcements

[Indygram]

1. Three of them seem to have actual plans

Beto, Kamala and Warren. I do think Beto's is a bit more reader friendly in how it's presented on his website, though. He's also said the ERA needs to finally be ratified.

[loyalsister]

2. It requires more than lip service this time

I'm glad to see some thoughtful plans. No one should skate by with a simple stock answer about personal beliefs and a "legal safe and rare" caveat.
It's an actual emergency this time around. Thankfully we have candidates who embrace rather than just tolerate abortion rights.

[Indygram]

3. Until listening to Beto talk about it I didn't realize how closing facilities is such a big issue

He talks about the issue before taking questions in his townhalls.

[pnwmom]

4. It IS an emergency that all the candidates should be clearly addressing. n/t

[Hortensis]

5. Actually, they'll ALL protect the right to abortion,

and you should know that. It'd practically be blazed on the forehead of any Democratic candidate for president who didn't. Even more importantly, they're all very strong on protecting the right to privacy on which Roe and such things as right to contraception depend.

So, far more reliable than hanging our opinions frivolously on selected statements, look to their histories.

Buttigieg certainly isn't half as soft as the seemingly waffling quote here suggests. This very definitive and extremely strong pro- woman's rights position is what he told Fox's audience this week:

“I believe that the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her reproductive health and about her body is a natural right. I believe it is an American freedom. And I believe that should be enjoyed by women in every state.” ... ensuring this right begins with putting people on the Supreme Court who recognize it as such.

Chris Wallace about late-term abortions: “Do you believe at any point in pregnancy, whether it’s at six weeks or eight weeks or twenty-four weeks or whatever, that there should be any limit on a woman’s right to have an abortion?” Buttigieg initially responded by deflecting and asserting that the choice belongs to the pregnant woman alone. “I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line, and I trust the women to draw the line when it’s their own health.”

Wallace pushed for clarification, asking, “So just to be clear, you’re saying that you would be okay with a woman, well into the third trimester, deciding to abort her pregnancy.” Buttigieg again tried to deflect the question. He responded, “Look these hypotheticals are usually set up in order to provoke a strong emotional…” before Wallace interrupted and said, “It’s not hypothetical, there are 6,000 women a year who get abortions in the third trimester.”

Buttigieg downplayed the significance of 6,000 late-term abortions. He answered, “That’s right, representing less than 1 percent of cases. So let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. If it’s that late in your pregnancy, then it’s almost by definition, you’ve been expecting to carry it to term. We’re talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name. Women who have purchased a crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice. And the bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.”

www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/scott-slayton/democratic-candidate-pete-buttigieg-calls-late-term-abortions-hypothetical.html

Btw, something like 36% of Republicans are pro-abortion and roughly 25% of Democrats are anti-abortion. All our candidates know that, as they do the abortion politics in their home states and all those they really want to pick up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Well said! It's very important to read the fine print on Buttigieg's stance.

He made his position very clear and highly appropriate. Wallace got nowhere.