Hillary vs Bernie vs Abortion

For John, BLUF:  Probably not much worse than Richard M Nixon.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Hill, and Reporter Mark Hensch, we have "Sanders:  Clinton took my abortion remarks ‘out of context’".

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday criticized Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton for twisting his words on abortion.

“What Secretary Clinton did is take things out of context,” he said of the former Secretary of State on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Sanders was reacting to a comment from Clinton responding to his own criticism of Donald Trump.  Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, sparked outrage on Wednesday by suggesting that women would deserve punishment for getting an abortion if the procedure were illegal.  Sanders quickly blasted Trump’s remarks as “shameful,” adding that they distracted from “a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America."

Clinton on Thursday suggested that Sanders’s response means he is dismissive of the abortion rights battle.

“To me, this is a serious issue,” she said in Purchase, N.Y., according to ABC News.  "And it’s a very serious discussion.

Frankly, I am not sure Ms Hillary Clinton would recognize a context if it bit her on the ankle.  But, she does know how to treat Senator Sanders like some JV level candidate,♠ like a male ingénue.  While such rhetoric may be good practice for running against Mr Donald Trump, it may not work with Senator Sanders, even if the Main Stream Media is pulling for her.  Tuesday may give us a hint.♥

Abortion continues to be a hot issue and a very clever Mr Chris Matthews used a "hypothetical" to come as close as anyone to nailing Mr Donald Trump's hide to the cabin wall.  Without providing any context (there is that word again) he ask The Donald if abortion was illegal, if there should be punishment associated with violating the law.

And, The Donald, who has raised five kids of his own, says, yes, if you violate the law you get punished.  What should he have done?  Pushed back and ask Mr Matthews to describe the route to making abortion illegal.  [Given current court rulings, one would think this change would take a Constitutional Amendment, which would require a fairly clear consensus across the Fruited Plain.]  This would then bring up the question in a new way, which would be to ask what Congress would say, Democrats and Republicans.  Then Mr Trump could say, as President my job will are to execute the laws of the land in an impartial way, but with compassion.

As an aside, in an earlier blog post I mentioned the idea of having the law, the job of the law being to inform the population, but not having a punishment connected to it.

However, this is only part of the story.

From Ms Pam Kay and Breitbart, we have "Hillary Clinton:  ‘The Unborn Person Doesn’t Have Constitutional Rights’"

TODD: When does an unborn child have constitutional rights?

CLINTON: Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists.  The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.  Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support.  It doesn’t mean that, you know, don’t do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations.  But it does not include sacrificing the woman’s right to make decisions.  And I think that’s an important distinction that under Roe v. Wade we’ve had refined under our Constitution.

"You know."

If we are to follow Ms Clinton's reasoning, per Roe v. Wade the fetus is never safe from the mother.  I wonder how she feels about post-partum?  Is it OK for a doctor to allow a new born to lay on a table and die from not being warmed up and cared for, to die from exposure?

The problem for the nation is that some 80% think abortion should be legal and some 80% think it is wrong after some point in the pregnancy.  How do we reconcile the disparity between the numbers without ignoring a large segment of our population?  For sure, Ms Clinton doesn't have the answer, and I suspect neither does Mr Chris Matthews, whose Wikipedia entry lists him as a Roman Catholic and Holy Cross Graduate, as one would expect of a nice young man from Philadelphia.

Hat tip to the The Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  This attitude represents President Obama's view of Daesh.
♥  Tuesday, 5 April, we have Wisconsin, for both Parties.