Dem. Senator: We can agree on wanting to reduce ‘demand for abortions’

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/01/20/dem-senator-we-can-agree-on-wanting-to-reduce-demand-for-abortions/

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) commented on recent efforts by Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, saying that while Congress will “continue to have this debate” one point of agreement was “we want to reduce the number of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies and then there won’t be a demand for abortions.”

“I think the one thing whether you happen to be pro-choice, pro-life, the one thing that we can agree on I hope is that we want to reduce the number of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, and then there won’t be a demand for abortions,” Carper said during an interview posted Thursday with local Delmarva news station, WBOC.

“The Republicans have sought to defund Planned Parenthood, not every week, not every month but pretty consistently,” Carper said, claiming, “it’s a way for them to message to their base, so they keep bringing it up.”

Republicans pushed a reconciliation bill earlier this month that would have defunded Planned Parenthood. Despite passing in both the House and the Senate, the legislation was vetoed by President Obama.

“We’re going to continue to have this debate. As it turns out the number of abortions is down, down by a lot,” Carper said.

“Some people think that all they do at Planned Parenthood is perform abortions. That’s not it at all,” he emphasized. “One of the things they do is to help make sure that women don’t have children until they’re ready and that they and hopefully their husband are ready to have children, raise a child.”

“I think the one thing whether you happen to be pro-choice, pro-life, the one thing that we can agree on I hope is that we want to reduce the number of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, and then there won’t be a demand for abortions,” Carper concluded.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) came under fire from NARAL Pro-Choice America last week for making similar remarks in an interview with Roll Call saying that she did not believe in “abortion on demand” or that “abortion is a form of birth control or contraception.”

“I don’t believe in abortion on demand,” Pelosi said. “I’m talking about the health of the mother and the child, and this is not a decision that a politician should be making. This is about a woman’s judgment. This is about respect –– respect for women.

“I sometimes wonder if the Republican men who are here even know what’s going on in their own families,” she said, “because the fact is that contraception and birth control is something that is used — I don’t believe that abortion is a form of birth control or contraception — and if you want to diminish the number of abortions in our country, you should love contraception, but they don’t.”

“At a time when our rights are under daily attack in the halls of Congress, on the campaign trail, in statehouses and in the courts, now more than ever, we need our champions to speak with a clear and strong voice in support of our legal right to abortion,” Sasha Bruce, NARAL senior vice president for campaigns and strategy, responded in a statement. “Unfortunately, Leader Pelosi’s recent comments fall well short of this standard.”

“The Leader should stop using twisted GOP talking points about abortion and birth control,” Bruce wrote. “We don’t know women who demand abortion or use abortion as birth control. We do know women who make thoughtful decisions about how and if they want to start a family, and who need access to all reproductive-health care services, including abortion. We’re confident the Leader does too, which makes her comments all the more troubling.”

Pelosi addressed the criticism Wednesday by again emphasizing that she’s “never” supported abortion on demand and saying that politicians should focus on making sure women have freedom in deciding “the size and timing of their families.”

“I’ve never supported that, but I believe that inside and outside of Congress, we should all be working together to make sure that women have the right to make their own decisions in terms of the size and timing and of their families,” she said during her weekly press briefing in the Capitol. “That’s something that I had been passionate about my whole life in the political arena, and also one [issue] that I’ve tried to be dispassionate about how we achieve our goals.”

— Written by Lauretta Brown