CLEVELAND, August 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Former New York Gov. George Pataki has an unusual position on abortion for a Roman Catholic Republican. He believes Roe v. Wade should remain the “law of the land.”
“My heart has not changed, because I’ve always been appalled by abortion. I’m a Catholic. I believe life begins at conception,” the former three-term governor of New York said at the 5 p.m. debate on Fox News Thursday night. “But as Bill [Hemmer of Fox News] said earlier, Roe v. Wade – it has been the law for 42 years, and I don’t think we should continue to try to change it.”
However, Pataki – the longest of longshot presidential hopefuls – said that would not prevent him from enacting pro-life legislation in the event that he becomes the 45th president of the United States.
“What we can do is defund Planned Parenthood, and…put in place an absolute, permanent ban on any taxpayer dollars ever being used to fund abortions.”
“What else we can do is that we should believe in science,” he said, citing Democratic claims that Republicans are waging a “war on science” by rejecting climate change theories. “Well, they’re the ones not listening to the scientists today,” he said.
“I would pass legislation outlawing abortion after 20 weeks,” he said. “It is Hillary, it is Biden, it is the others who insist on allowing abortion well into the life of a viable infant that is wrong, and that should be stopped.”
Moderator Martha MacCallum pointed out that no Republican who openly supports abortion-on-demand has won a single primary since 1976.
