Clinton Was Right About Late-Term Abortions

At Wednesday night's debate, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump defended their positions on late-term abortions, an undeniably touchy subject. But while Trump painted a gruesome picture of babies being ripped out of the womb days before their birth, Clinton got to the heart of why women have late-term abortions.

As Trump reiterated his support for the Second Amendment, Fox News' Chris Wallace steered the conversation toward another law that the Republican presidential candidate would like to see overturned: Roe v. Wade. Trump, after pandering for a bit, ultimately said that it would happen "automatically" after he appointed pro-choice judges to the Supreme Court. In response, Clinton reiterated her support of Roe v. Wade. All of that probably could have been expected, but Wallace pressed Clinton further, questioning her specifically on her former support for the law: Wallace asked:

I want to ask you Secretary Clinton I want to explore how far you believe the right to abortion goes. You have been quoted as saying that the fetus has no constitutional rights. You also voted against a ban on late-term partial-birth abortions. Why?

As Clinton noted in her response, Roe v. Wade allows for restrictions on abortions so long as the life and the health of the mother are taken into account, something she "did not think was the case" when she cast her vote as a senator. For a moment, it seemed like Clinton would pivot away from the late-term abortion topic with a simple explanation that could placate some potential voters. But Clinton took it a step further:

The kinds of cases that fall at the end of pregnancy are often the most heartbreaking, painful decisions for families to make. I have met with women who have, toward the end of their pregnancy, get the worst news one could get that their health is in jeopardy if they continue to carry to term or that something terrible has happened or just been discovered about the pregnancy. I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions. So you can regulate if you are doing so with the life and health of the mother taken into account.

Trump, meanwhile, countered that if it was up to Clinton, you could "take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day." Sigh.

Clinton's comments and her subsequent anecdotes about the women she has met traveling across the world were an amazing reminder that at least one of the candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night actually does respect women more than anyone else. Clinton could've easily left the question of late-term abortion in its simplest terms, but instead, she took the time to detail her belief that women and their bodies deserve the rights guaranteed to them by the law. She unapologetically tackled the often challenging situations that women have to face with their reproductive health, which was refreshing honesty in the fact of such a fraught topic.