Herman Cain in New Interview: Abortion Should Not be Legal

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 21, 2011   |   3:16PM   |   Washington, DC

Herman Cain has given a new interview in which he explains his pro-life views on abortion and gives some insight as to why he made some “pro-choice” sounding comments in a CNN interview this week.

As LifeNews.com reported, Cain gave an interview to CNN on Wednesday in which he used typical “pro-choice” language about government not making abortion decisions for women that applied, depending on the listener, to either abortions in the case of rape and incest or abortion policy in general. Either way, pro-life advocates have been disappointed following the comments and they have called on Cain to clarify the comments — which he did in a short message on twitter later in the day saying he is “100% pro-life.”

Cain, later Thursday, released a statement saying he is fully pro-life, saying he will appoint the kind of judges who would be inclined to consider reversing Roe v. Wade, and adding that he opposes taxpayer funding of abortions or the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Now, the Georgia businessman and GOP presidential hopeful says in a new interview with Fox News that abortions should be illegal, and he explained why he gave the answer he did to Piers Morgan on CNN.

“Look, let’s go back,” Cain told the America Live program. “See, he was asking me two questions. My position on abortion has been the same — on pro-life — has been the same throughout this campaign. And that is, I am pro-life from conception and I don’t believe in abortion. When he then tried to pigeon-hole me on my granddaughter being there as a victim of rape, then what would I do?”

“The only point I was trying to make: A lot of families will be in that position and they are not going to be thinking, “Well, what does the government want me to do?” My position is no abortion. My position is no abortion. But all I was trying to point out was take the typical family in this country and you don’t know what they might do in the heat of the moment,” Cain explained.

Fox’s anchor Martha MacCallum responded: “Here’s the issue pro-life people are going to have with that. You’re presenting it as a choice, a decision that is to be made by the family, not something that is considered murder by the laws of this country.” The anchor continued telling Cain that some politicians say they are pro-life but say they don’t want government involved in protecting the lives of unborn children.

“Let me just state again, I am pro-life from conception, no exceptions,” Cain responded. “I will not fund any abortions by the government, I will sign any legislation to de-fund  and all of the other variations of this whole pro-life issue.”

MacCallum then asked, “The question is, do you want abortion to be legal in this country for families who want to make that decision?”

Cain replied, “No. No, I do not believe abortion should be legal in this country if that’s the question. I’m consistent with that.”

“Look, abortion should not be legal,” Cain said a moment later. “That is clear,” he said, adding that anyone who wanted to get an abortion would be breaking the law by doing so: “But if that family made a decision to break the law, that’s that family’s decision.”