Senator Durbin on Abortion Reduction

This is in my opinion one of the best sound bytes from a Democrat on Abortion I have heard in years. Senator Durbin is dead on regarding the issue of Abortion. It is smart public policy and more Democrats should begin to talk this way and follow through with substantial policy and legislation.



From Media Matters:

On the June 12 edition of his MSNBC show, Chris Matthews asserted, "I don't hear Democrats talk ... about the need to reduce the number of abortions." He continued: "They talk about the rights issue, the constitutional question of Roe v. Wade, but you don't hear them talking a lot about the need for education, for much fewer, maybe enormously fewer, unwanted pregnancies, which is the reason people get abortions." In fact, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) -- have all said that the United States should work to reduce the number of abortions through education and access to contraception.

Matthews made his comment after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said: "I think women and men have the same concern about where this country is going and struggling from paycheck to paycheck. When it comes to more basic issues, issues of privacy, certainly it means a lot to all of us. And it means a lot to women in this country. I think Barack Obama's position on the issue of choice is one that most Americans agree with. He wants to try to downplay and discourage the number of abortions in this country, to have more family planning, to avoid unplanned pregnancies."

At a Compassion Forum at Messiah College on April 13, Obama said, "[W]e can certainly agree on the fact that we should be doing everything we can to avoid unwanted pregnancies that might even lead somebody to consider having an abortion," and, "I think that we can reduce abortions and I think we should make sure that adoption is an option for people out there." Obama's campaign addresses the issue on its website also; under the headline, "Preventing Unwanted Pregnancy," it reads: "Barack Obama is an original co-sponsor of legislation to expand access to contraception, health information and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies."