The Gamut

My answer is, we're not going to spend taxpayers' money on abortion.

This is an issue that divides America, but certainly reasonable people can agree on how to reduce abortions in America.

I signed the partial-birth -- the ban on partial-birth abortion. It's a brutal practice. It's one way to help reduce abortions. My opponent voted against the ban.

I think there ought to be parental notification laws. He's against them.

I signed a bill called the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

In other words, if you're a mom and you're pregnant and you get killed, the murderer gets tried for two cases, not just one. My opponent was against that.

Well, again, the president just said, categorically, my opponent is against this, my opponent is against that. You know, it's just not that simple. No, I'm not.

I'm against the partial-birth abortion, but you've got to have an exception for the life of the mother and the health of the mother under the strictest test of bodily injury to the mother.

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It's never quite as simple as the president wants you to believe.

Well, it's pretty simple when they say: Are you for a ban on partial birth abortion? Yes or no?

And he was given a chance to vote, and he voted no. And that's just the way it is. That's a vote. It came right up. It's clear for everybody to see. And as I said: You can run but you can't hide the reality.

Mr. President, your father was also a believer that abortion is wrong, although he made exceptions for cases such as rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. I understand that you too support those same exceptions. Yet in the debate last Friday, when I said that I’d voted against the partial birth abortion ban because the bill had no exception for the safety of the mother, you said that a vote is a vote. That any vote against a bill outlawing partial birth abortion is a vote in favor of the practice. You said this even after I had said that I would have voted for it had there been a provision protecting the life of the mother. So which is it, Mr. President? Are you in favor of an exception allowing women to choose abortion when their lives are in danger, or are you against it?