WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich said over the weekend that abortion should be a states’ right issue, and that he hoped Roe v. Wade would be rescinded.
“I hope they — they do repeal ‘Roe v. Wade’ and then, you know, it will be up to the states to decide how — how they want to proceed,” Kasich told George Stephanopoulos Sunday on ABC News. “It will be up to them to figure out what they want to do. And that's precisely what we would do.”
Stephanopoulos then responded: “But you said there are legitimate and constitutional restrictions that could be put on abortion. What are they?”
“I am opposed to abortion in except the case of rape, incest and life of the mother. I hope ‘Roe v. Wade’ will be repealed,” Kasich said. “And — and then it will be turned to the states and the states will have to figure out exactly what the restrictions ought to be, period, end of story.”
Kasich also defended his pro-life record as governor of Ohio, in having signed numerous pro-life bills with regulations resulting in the closing of half of the state’s abortion facilities. “And I've been very careful about making sure that we don't pass something that's going to cause a constitutional conflict,” he said.
The exchange came as fallout continued for all three GOP candidates after frontrunner Donald Trump’s told MSNBC's Chris Matthews last week, “There has to be some form of punishment” for women who undergo abortion.
Asked by Stephanopoulos if he believed that abortion was taking an innocent life, how he would enforce a ban, Kasich persisted in the states’ rights answer.
KASICH: Well, that will be up to the states to figure out what they want to do. And, you know, obviously, when we have seen these comments that have come out earlier this week, it's the first time I've seen the pro-life and the pro-choice people come together to say, you know, that we'll have to basically work this out and trying to punish a woman would not be the appropriate way to behave. And I think it's going to take people, in a reasonable way, working through it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But why isn't it appropriate? If you believe that abortion is the taking of innocent life, why shouldn't a woman who makes the choice to take that life face some kind of punishment or sanctions?
KASICH: Because I think it's difficult on her to begin with, that's the way I feel about it, George. And that's the end of it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if it follows that a woman is making the choice to take a life?
KASICH: Look, I've said what I have to say about the subject, George. You know how I have behaved both as a legislator and as a governor, and I would like to have those exceptions. I would like to leave it to those exceptions. And it'll be up to the states to decide how they want to handle this.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you believe doctors who perform abortions should be punished?
KASICH: We're going to leave this up to the states to work this out the way they want to, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're not going to take any position on doctors facing punishment?
KASICH: Right now — let me just put to you, this way I'm not. Today I'm not. I've just told you how I feel about it.
One Ohio pro-life leader avidly supported Kasich’s pro-life record as governor.
“I can tell you unequivocally and without a shadow of a doubt there is no candidate previously running or currently running for president of the United States that is more pro-life than John Kasich,” Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis said.
“We’ve passed 17 pro-life laws in five years, we’ve cut the number of abortion mills in the state in half in the last five years,” he told LifeSiteNews. “We’ve defunded Planned Parenthood three times and we now have the lowest abortion rate in he state’s history.”
The Ohio abortion rate has decreased 10 percent per year under Kasich, Gonidakis said.
“We want it to be at zero,” he continued. “But I don’t believe there is a state in the U.S. that’s done more for the pro-life movement than Ohio, and it’s been under our governor.”
Gonidakis clarified he was not criticizing any of the other candidates, but rather it’s a matter that no one has a pro-life record like Kasich.
“At the end of the day results matter,” he said.
Kasich won last month’s Ohio primary by 11 points, taking all 66 delegates.
The night before the February 9 New Hampshire primary, Kasich told voters there he would defund Planned Parenthood as president. There, he came in second.
He has vowed to stay in the race despite the mathematical impossibility for him to get the necessary 1,237 votes to win the GOP primary nomination outright, shooting for a brokered convention to seal the Republican nomination.
In spite of Kasich’s pro-life record, family advocates maintain concern over his support of Common Core, as well as his expressed willingness to accept homosexual “marriage” as the law of the land.
This past December the Ohio Department of Health, headed by Kasich-appointed Rick Hodges, granted the Cincinnati Planned Parenthood a variance to continue performing abortions through this May, after the abortion facility was caught operating in violation of Ohio law requiring surgical abortion facilities to have an ambulatory patient-transfer agreement with a local, non-tax-funded hospital.
The abortion giant was suing Ohio over such laws designed to protect pregnant women from dying after botched abortion surgeries, and part of the Kasich administration’s deal with Planned Parenthood was for the abortion agency to drop its lawsuit against the state.
Gonidakis had said then of the move, which was also criticized by other pro-life advocates, “It's unfortunate that the Department of Health is allowing an abortion facility to remain open[.] … Granting a variance to circumvent state law is no way to ensure that women will be protected.”
In an August interview with CNN, Kasich said that while abortion is an important issue to him, there are other issues that also have importance, such as the environment and infant mortality, and also said that Republicans had “allowed themselves to be put in a box” with regard to abortion.
Former Kasich spokesperson and Faith2Action President Janet Porter responded at the time that Kasich betrayed the pro-life movement with his refusal to support the Ohio heartbeat bill as the state’s governor.
Later that month when asked on the campaign trail about Roe v. Wade, Kasich stated “Obviously, it's the law of the land now, and we live with the law of the land.”