Rand Paul appears to step back from pro-life stance

 

“Just to be precise, if you believe life begins at conception, which I suspect you do you would have no exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother is that right?” Blitzer asked. In response, Senator Paul said “I think that once again puts things in too small of a box, ” adding, “What I would say is there are thousands of exceptions. I’m a physician and every individual case is going to be different. Everything is going to be particular to that individual case and what is going on that mother and the medical circumstances of that mother… There are a lot of decisions made privately by families and doctors that really won’t, the law won’t apply to, but I think it is important we not be flippant one way or the other and pigeon hole and say this person doesn’t believe in any sort of discussion between family and physician.”

 

The Atlantic Wire contends that this was significant change in the senator's rhetoric on the issue. A Kentucky Right to Life survey in 2010 showed that Senator Paul opposed exceptions for rape and incest, opposed hormonal birth control, and supported a theoretical constitutional amendment banning all abortions by extending personhood to unborn babies. In 2009, Senator Paul told The Associated Press that he feels opposing abortion in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at stake is “an honest position.”

 

When pushed by host Blitzer on whether he believes in exceptions to personhood protections for unborn babies, Senator Paul repeated his claim that there will be “thousands” of exceptions dealt with on a case-by-case basis. “There is going to be, like I say, thousands of extraneous situations where the life of the mother is involved, and other things that are involved, so I would say that each individual case would have to be addressed,” he explained. “And even if there were eventually a change in the law — let’s say people came more to my way of thinking — there would still be a lot of complicated things the law may not ultimately be able to address in the early stages of pregnancy. That would have to be part of what occurs between the physician, and the woman and the family.”

 

The National Abortion Federation estimates that 88 percent of abortions take place within the first three months of pregnancy. The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade found that late-term abortion bans could only be enacted when an unborn baby becomes viable outside the womb, usually around 22-24 weeks into the pregnancy.