Reply #47: No worries, found it!

[elshiva]

Great about Howard Dean and abortion.
MR. RUSSERT: Some Democrats and many Republicans believe that Howard Dean is too liberal to be chairman of the Democratic Party. Do you agree?

SEN. KERRY: No, I don't agree with that. I think, in fact, if you look at Howard's record as a governor, he was a strong balance-the-budget governor. He was conservative on a lot of issues. And I think that's part of what happens in campaigns. You get these stamps and broad brushes that aren't exactly accurate.

Like Hell he thinks Dean will be a bad chair!

SEN. KERRY: We have pro-life Democrats today. Harry Reid is a leader. He is pro-life. We have others who are pro-life. I think what I was saying, Tim, is that, you know, you can't be doctrinarian negative against somebody simply because they have that position. There's more to it. Now, does that change the position of the Democratic Party in defending the right to choose? No, absolutely not. Not in the least.

But you can't be--I mean, let me put it this way. Too many people in America believe that if you are pro-choice that means pro-abortion. It doesn't. I don't want abortion. Abortion should be the rarest thing in the world. I am actually personally opposed to abortion. But I don't believe that I have a right to take what is an article of faith to me and legislate it to other people. That's not how it works in America.

So you have to have room to be able to talk about these things in a rational way. We also need--I mean, I thought Hillary gave a good speech the other way in which she talked about the need--and many of us have talked about this for a long period of time. The discussion is not about being pro-abortion. The discussion is about how you truly value life. Valuing life is also valuing choice. Valuing life is the exception for the life of a mother or rape or incest. I mean, there are all kinds of values here. And in addition to that, we ought to be making certain that people understand there are other options. Abstinence is worth talking about. Adoption is worth talking about. There are many things we can do.

And do you know that in fact abortion has gone up in these last few years with the draconian policies that Republicans have where they talk about it, but they do nothing to find this kind of place of discussion. And under President Clinton, abortion went down because we did have adequate family planning services, because we talked about counseling, adoption and other kinds of things.



"The article of faith" I guess is ensoulment the belief that the embryo becomes human, receives a soul, at conception. I believe this too, but I know that the whole life ethic can't be narrowed to fetal life.

All in all it was a good interview, although I hated all the Russert questions about where he was when in Cambodia. Give it a rest already!