WASHINGTON, D.C. — Science is winning the abortion debate and making clear that the Democrats’ position on the issue is “extreme, hypocritical, and inconsistent,” said business leader Carly Fiorina, rumored to be considering a 2016 presidential campaign, during the keynote address this afternoon for a Heritage Foundation life-and-family forum in Washington, DC.
“Science is helping those of us who believe in the sanctity of life to make our case every day. Science is why more and more young people are becoming pro-life,” she said at the event, which was co-hosted by the National Review Institute.
The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company pointed out how the DNA of a zygote continues to be the same DNA of the person throughout the entire spectrum of his or her life. She also noted how in utero surgery continues to shed light on the humanity of the pre-born.
Fiorina told LifeSiteNews after the event that if she were to ever lead a presidential campaign, she would not shun the issue of abortion.
“This is an issue that we should not be afraid of,” she said, adding that abortion at “any time for any reason” is an “incredibly extreme position” that is rejected by many Americans.
Fiorina, who ran unsuccessfully in 2010 as the Republican nominee for the United States Senate from California, related during her keynote how her husband was almost aborted by her mother-in-law due to the mother’s medical condition.
“The doctors feared for her life. But she was a woman of deep faith and great courage, and she chose to carry her son to term. She spent almost a year in the hospital following his birth. But her son, my husband, was the joy of her life and for over thirty years he has been the rock in mine,” she said.
“I think often, of how different my life would be if my mother-in-law had chosen a different path.”
Showing her character as a potential leader of the country, Fiorina distinguished between management and leadership, saying the former is about “production of acceptable results within known constraints and conditions,” while the latter is about “changing those constraints and conditions” by “changing the order of things.”
“The highest calling of leadership is to unlock the potential in others,” she said, adding that leadership has nothing to do with acquiring “position, or title, or power.”
She took Democrats to task for failing to see potential in the lives of every unborn child.
“Rather than acknowledge the preponderance of scientific knowledge and public opinion, some Democrats continue to aggressively defend abortion for any reason, at any point in a pregnancy,” she said.
“Life is not measured in time, or IQ, or wealth. Life is measured in love, and moments of joy and grace, and positive contribution.”
“On these most profound questions of life and life’s meaning, frankly I find the Democrats’ party platform and liberal talking points to be extreme, hypocritical, and inconsistent,” she said.
She gave the example of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who infamously said in a 1999 Senate debate about partial birth abortion that a baby should not be given constitutional rights, such as the right to life, until it has left the hospital to be brought home.
“The hypocrisy of liberal positions is astounding to me, actually. I have lived for more than a decade in the state of California. And there, lives and livelihoods have been routinely destroyed because of the extreme lengths to which liberals have gone to protect the lives of fish, of frogs, and indeed yes, even of flies.”
“Liberals may not know when life begins, but surely even they would argue that a human life is worth more than a fly’s,” she said.
At one point Fiorina criticized the abortion industry for remaining “less regulated than tattoo parlours.”
Fiorina spoke of the upcoming March for Life in the Capitol on Thursday commemorating 42 years of legal abortion in America since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“We gather here because we know that women and their unborn children deserve our respect, they deserve our empathy, and they deserve our support. We gather here because we know that the life we save may make all the difference in the lives of others. We gather here because we know that no one of us is any better than any other one of us. We gather here because we know that every human life has potential, and every human life is precious,” she said.
If she decided to run a presidential campaign, Fiorina told LifeSiteNews she does not fear the ‘war on women’ tag that plagued the Republican party in the last election.
“What I would say to any woman is: ‘Look, I am pro-life. I understand and respect that not every woman agrees with me, but that doesn’t mean that I’m waging a war on women. In fact, I find it insulting to women to suggest that all we care about are so-called reproductive rights,’” she said.