Herman Cain: What did he say about abortion?
| Washington
Herman Cain鈥檚 been getting slammed by his opponents for statements he made in a recent interview with CNN鈥檚 Piers Morgan suggesting that his position on abortion is, um, not particularly coherent.
You can , but we鈥檝e transcribed the relevant bits below:
MORGAN: What鈥檚 your view of abortion?
CAIN: I believe that life begins at conception and abortion under no circumstances - and here鈥檚 why
MORGAN: No circumstances?
CAIN: No circumstances.
MORGAN: Because many of your fellow candidates - well, certainly, some of them - qualify that
CAIN: they qualify it, but
MORGAN: rape, and incest, and so on.
CAIN: rape and incest
MORGAN: Are you honestly saying - a tricky question, i know
CAIN: a tricky question
MORGAN: You鈥檝e had children, grandchildren
CAIN: Yes
MORGAN: If one of your female children, grandchildren was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?
CAIN: See, you鈥檙e mixing two things here Piers.
MORGAN: Why?
CAIN: You鈥檙e mixing two things here
MORGAN: But that鈥檚 what it comes down to
CAIN: What it comes down to is not the government鈥檚 role or anybody else鈥檚 role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you鈥檙e not talking about that big a number. So what I鈥檓 saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family, and whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn鈥檛 try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision.
MORGAN: But by expressing the view that you鈥檝e expressed, you are effectively鈥� You might be president. You can鈥檛 hide behind the mask of being the pizza guy. You might be president of the United States of America. So your views on these things become exponentially massively more important. They become a directive to the nation.
CAIN: No they don鈥檛. I can have an opinion on an issue without it being a directive on the nation. The government shouldn鈥檛 be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to a social decision that they need to make.
MORGAN: That鈥檚 a very interesting departure from the normal politics.
CAIN: Exactly.
Cain鈥檚 campaign later released a statement attempting to clarify his position, saying:
Yesterday in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, I was asked questions about abortion policy and the role of the President. I understood the thrust of the question to ask whether that I, as president, would simply 鈥渙rder鈥� people to not seek an abortion. My answer was focused on the role of the President. The President has no constitutional authority to order any such action by anyone. That was the point I was trying to convey. As to my political policy view on abortion, I am 100% pro-life. End of story.
The whole episode has given Cain鈥檚 opponents a clear opening to attack. Rick Santorum that Cain鈥檚 position was 鈥渂asically the position that just about every pro-choice politician has in America.鈥�
And at Saturday鈥檚 Faith and Freedom Coalition banquet in Des Moines, Iowa, Rick Perry took a clear jab at Cain (though without naming him personally), with this remark:
鈥淚t is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life but government should stay out of that decision. If that is your view, you are not pro-life, you are pro having your cake and eating it too.鈥�
More intriguing, that an anonymous leaflet was distributed on car windshields outside the banquet, saying 鈥淗erman Cain threw the babies under the bus,鈥� and quoting Cain鈥檚 remarks from the CNN interview: 鈥淚t ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make.鈥�
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