Is it true Kucinich is/was pro-life?

[JohnLocke]

[Demobrat]

1. Yes. He eventually came around to the point of view

that choice was an equal rights issue. Just in time to run for pres.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

10. Kucinich IS pro-life, and is pro-choice

Kucinich is pro-life - he's against war, the death penalty, and abortion, which is in line with many Catholics. He supports a woman's right to choose, because of the women in his life who set him straight.

Dennis agrees with Bill Clinton - abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. That's why Dennis Kucinich supports universal health care, sex education, and contraception.

Dennis Kucinich is very mainstream and centrist on this issue. Most Americans agree with his stand.

[jsw_81]

2. Yes

And so was Dick Gephardt.

[Crowdance]

3. Gep still is.

He voted for the "partial birth" abortion ban last year.

[EllieDem]

5. I heard he was pro life until he decided to run

for president. Now imagine if he were a serious contender how much that would damage him and how much the others would use it!!

[ThirdWheelLegend]

11. Imagine if what you said was true...

but it isn't.

He took around TWO years off of voting on choice related issues. Well before his Prayer for America speech in Feb 2002 that caused people to start asking him to run for president. So NO unlike what many misinformed people say, he had started changing his position long before he was DRAFTED into the race. He wasn't planning on running.

He spent this time making a deeply personal decision and during that time he spoke with many women on the issue.

He now has one of the STRONGEST pro-choice stances of the candidates, calling for any SCOTUS nominee to be required to agree to uphold RvW.

He also voted AGAINST the PBA ban vote recently and took to the floor of the house to SPEAK adamantly AGAINST it.

When you take into account that Kucinich is the most honest candidate it doesn't make it hard at all to understand and believe in his stance.


http://www.kucinich.us/issues/rightsreproductive.php

"I support Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose, and will select Supreme Court justices who affirm this Constitutional right."

"I’ve had a journey on this issue that a year ago, before I became a candidate for President, caused me to break from a voting record that had not been pro-choice. After hearing from many women in my own life, and from women and men in my community and across the country, I began a more intensive dialogue on the issue. A lot of women opened their hearts to me. That dialogue led me to wholeheartedly support a woman’s right to choose.

I have come to believe that it’s not simply about the right to choose, but about a woman’s role in society as being free and having agency and having the ability to make her own decisions. That a woman can’t be free unless she has this right."
snip-------

more...
"Note from Lila Garrett
"For a very long time many of us tried to convince Dennis Kucinich to run for President. He made his decision in his own way, thoughfully, after much soul searching and meticulous analysis of the issues. I love the way his mind works. I have known Dennis for many years, during all of which he has stood for peace and patience. I watched him evolve on his position on Choice, for example, the way he listened to women -- really listened. The way he opposes the Bush administration's attempt to criminalize abortion. Dennis not only adamantly opposes the criminalization of abortion, he has come to support Choice not just with lip service, but with concrete programs to move it forward. He would fund abortions for poor women through Medicaid. He would make Roe v. Wade a litmus test for judicial appointments. Once he embraces a program, he doesn't just let it happen. He makes it happen." -- April, 2003

Lila Garrett is a writer/director who headed the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, where Dennis unveiled his "Prayer for America." She has become the Southern California Chair of the Kucinich Campaign"


TWL

[Demobrat]

8. Didn't he also vote

for a constitutional amendment banning abortion around 1988 or so?

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Yes, but

I would NEVER hold something like that against a candidate. He saw the light! It's NO different than Clark changing from an Independent to a Democrat. Everyone has a right to change their mind and people like to hold Clark's past voting record against him. WHO THE HELL CARES HOW SOMEONE VOTED 20-30 YEARS AGO???

Back to Dennis. I admire him for changing his views on abortion. It took a lot of guts to do that.

[EllieDem]

6. I don't buy that......

not something like the choice issue ......I put the death penalty in that category as well......those things you just don't change overnight unless its totally political and then that looks really shallow, ya know??

[ThirdWheelLegend]

12. but since he didnt change it overnight...

read my reply to your first post

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. (ahem)

I have been a Democrat forever. I USE to be pro death penalty. I'm not anymore. I HATE it. So, I would have to disagree with you. :)

[dogman]

7. Who isn't?

Personally I object to letting the RW label themselves as Pro-life while labeling us as pro-abortion. That's why I label myself as Pro-life_Pro-choice. Particularly disturbing to me is how B*** can be labeled Pro-life when he is responsible for the death of so many people. I understand that in a war people die but an unnecessary war like Iraq is inexcusable.

[xultar]

9. Yup! He changed after talking to the women in his life n/t

[ThirdWheelLegend]

14. wow sounds like an evil man to me!

lol

And he stopped voting on choice related issues well before he was DRAFTED to run which kinda rules out that whole did it for the candidacy thing.

TWL

[MuseRider]

15. Thanks goodness you were here

to see all of this and answer. Everytime I see this I just smack myself upside the head.