GOP Candidates Play Their Pro-Life Views on Abortion to Iowa Crowd 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 17, 2007
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — While Rudy Giuliani said over the weekend that the Republican party should get over the issue of abortion, the other GOP candidates for president played up their pro-life views on abortion to the Iowa crowd. They each tried to one-up the other in impressive the conservative primary voters there.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee discussed his longtime pro-life views and his record signing pro-life views and said he was no Johnny-come-lately on the issue unlike some of his rivals.
“I’m not late in declaring that life begins at conception and we ought to protect human life,” he said, according to a New York Times report.
Arizona Sen. John McCain spoke last and told the Iowans that he had supported "the rights of the unborn" for 24 years "without changing, without wavering."
While he has a strong record voting pro-life on abortion issues, McCain upset pro-life advocates last week when he voted again to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that destroys human life.
After the event, McCain was asked what he would do in regard to abortion as president, and he said he "would try to help change the culture in America."
Though he was the subject of digs from other candidates because of his newfound pro-life position, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney played up to the crowd saying that "people who respect the sanctity of human life" are "what makes America strong."
Meanwhile, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback entered the dinner, which featured more than 1,000 people, with his supporters chanting "pro-life is whole life" — a reference to a theme he’s undertaken showing how he is pro-life both before and after birth.
