Trying To Find Out About Kaine And Abortion
Posted on July 29, 2008 by andrew
First, a huge disclaimer: While reporters are seeing a lot of evidence pointing to Tim Kaine as Obama’s VP pick, I strongly doubt the senator has made his final choice yet (as do most of the reporters in question). I suspect 3-5 names are legitimately still in contention for Obama and the people he has entrusted with this decision.
That said, Kaine is one of those 3-5 names based on all of the reporting we’ve seen, so I think it’s worth spending some time on the issue. How does Kaine really feel about abortion, given that, while the Vice President may not have a lot of say over policy while in office, he does have quite a bit of control over the future of the party and is a near shoo-in for a future presidential nomination?
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a lot of solid information. Recent news reports suggest Kaine is relatively conservative for a Democrat on abortion, but don’t go into much more detail. Kaine’s website as governor is not a campaign site and therefore doesn’t discuss issues in broad terms so much as specific policy concerns on the table in Virginia. However, I was able to find a Catholic-centric blog’s excerpt from Kaine’s 2005 campaign website. Unfortunately, the site itself now appears to be dead and is unavailable in the Internet Wayback Machine. Still, I’m going to assume the excerpt on the blog I found is accurate and complete until I see some evidence to the contrary.
I have a faith-based opposition to abortion. As governor, I will work in good faith to reduce abortions by:
1. Enforcing the current Virginia restrictions on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;
2. Fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education;
3. Ensuring women’s access to health care (including legal contraception) and economic opportunity; and
4. Promoting adoption as an alternative for women facing unwanted pregnancies.We should reduce abortion in this manner, rather than by criminalizing women and doctors. Too often politicians are interested in scoring political points, rather than in reducing the number of abortions. Many of the legislative proposals introduced in the General Assembly, like the ones to require unnecessary building standards for doctor’s offices that perform abortions, are just political grandstanding. They encourage division and lawsuits rather than contributing to the goal of reducing abortions.
Now, you could reasonably argue that, with the exception of Kaine’s approval of a “partial birth” ban, this statement represents a different spin on the Clintons’ idea of making abortion “safe, legal, and rare” and really is not far outside of the mainstream for centrist Democrats. Of course, you could also easily argue that some of the language used in the statement and the support for a “partial birth” ban imply that Kaine will do everything in his power to limit access to abortions without banning abortion outright, is nearly as bad as a “pro-life” Republican, and therefore has no business on a Democratic ticket.
I honestly haven’t decided how I feel. Kaine obviously doesn’t represent my ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe he would be acceptable with some clarifying statements affirming that “abstinence-focused” should not be confused with “abstinence-only” and that the freedom and health of the mother should be the top priority in any policy regarding abortions, even if he would personally prefer stricter limits. Maybe he can convincingly walk back the worrying parts of the above statement. I’m not sure.
Any thoughts?
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Tim Kaine, abortion, reproductive rights, running mates
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