During Saturday night’s NH GOP debate, Marco Rubio was asked how he planned to tackle social issues with millennial voters, in particular issues of life and marriage.
Rubio discussed abortion as a two-fold issue — one dealing with women’s rights and the other with the right to life. “I’ve chosen to err on the side of life,” he said. Hillary Clinton’s stance on abortion was pulled into his answer as Rubio called her views “extreme.”
Rubio’s full answer:
“To me the issue of life is not a political issue, it’s a human rights issue and it’s a difficult issue because it puts in conflict two competing rights. On the one hand is the right for a woman to choose what to do with her body which is a real right, and on the other hand is the right of a human unborn child to live. They’re in conflict and as a policy maker, I must choose which one of these two sides takes precedence and I’ve chosen to err on the side of life.Here’s what I find outrageous. There has been five Democratic debates and the media has not asked them a single question on abortion and on abortion, the Democrats are extremists. Why doesn’t the media ask Hillary Clinton why she believes that all abortion should be legal, even on the due date of that unborn child? Why don’t they ask Hillary Clinton why she believes that partial-birth abortion, which is a gruesome procedure that has been outlawed in this country; she thinks it’s a fundamental right. They are the extremists when it comes to the issue of abortion.”
The human rights angle is a great argument and one that can and should gain a fair amount of traction. It’s also not one that often makes it’s way into the political arena. So I welcome that with open arms.
Rubio’s line that “Hillary Clinton’s views are extreme” also was used by Carly Fiorina in July.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Fiorina said:
“Let’s also talk about Hillary Clinton’s position. Let’s talk about what extreme is. It’s not a life until it leaves the hospital, that’s Hillary Clinton’s position. It’s Hillary Clinton’s position that a 13-year-old girl needs her mother’s permission to go to a tanning salon or get a tattoo, but not to get an abortion. It’s Hillary Clinton’s position that women should not be permitted to look at an ultrasound before an abortion, and yet people who are trying to harvest body parts can use an ultrasound to make sure that those body parts are preserved so they can be sold. That Jake, is extreme.”“I would really be delighted if for once, the media would ask Hillary Clinton about the extremism of her position.”
Video here:
Pro-Life views such as those held by Rubio and Fiorina never will be accepted as valid by the mainstream media and liberal interest groups. So there’s no sense trying to convince them — better to turn the argument around and make Democrats justify their own extremism.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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