Election 2008 | Giuliani Answers Questions About Consistency of Abortion Rights Stance; Biden Says Court Ruling on Abortion Ban 'Contains Troubling Reasoning'
[Apr 26, 2007]

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, on Tuesday at a campaign stop at New England College in Henniker, N.H., answered questions from voters about his position on so-called "partial-birth" abortion, the Long Island Newsday reports (Gordon, Long Island Newsday, 4/24). Giuliani told several hundred people attending the event that he does not think there is an "inconsistency" between his support of abortion rights and his support of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week to uphold a federal law (S 3) banning partial-birth abortion, the AP/MSNBC reports. "I think you can be personally opposed to it, hate abortion, respect somebody else's conscience who might make a different decision, and also believe that particular form of abortion is wrong," he said. Giuliani acknowledged that he had supported former President Clinton's two vetoes of a partial-birth abortion ban because he felt the law did not make an exception to protect the life of the pregnant woman (Sidoti, AP/MSNBC, 4/25).

Sen. Biden's Response to Supreme Court Ruling
In related news, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, in recent statement released to the Wilmington News Journal said that the Supreme Court's partial-birth abortion ruling "contains troubling reasoning that could lay a powerful foundation to dismantle basic legal precedent." Biden is the only Democratic presidential candidate to have voted for the ban in the Senate in 2003. In the statement, he said he is a long-standing supporter of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that effectively barred state abortion bans, adding, "The Supreme Court's rationale reflects a decided turn to the right under the new leadership of the Chief Justice [John] Roberts and Justice [Samuel] Alito, both of whom I objected to during their nominations." Although the ruling prompted most Democratic presidential candidates to "immediately raise alarms and energize supporters on core party issues," Biden released his statement privately the day after ruling, the News Journal reports. Larry Rasky, campaign communications director for Biden's campaign, said there was no specific reason for the private release, adding that the statement was still widely publicized because wire services received it upon request. "It's not the kind of thing that you have to weigh into the day that it happens," Rasky said, "I think he spoke when he felt he had something to say" (Gaudiano, Wilmington News Journal, 4/23).