1992 VP: debate: abortion (starting at 57 minutes, 25
seconds to 1 hour, 5 minutes, 30 seconds)
01. M: ...let's talk about the abortion debate.
Abortion 02.
and abortion rights has been (*)
controversy in 03.
this country for almost 20 years.
It's been
04.
heightened by the recent Supreme Court decisions.
05.
So I'll make it very simple in this question.
06.
Where do each of you stand on the issue, what
07.
action will your president's administration take
08.
on the abortion question, will it be a factor in
09.
the appointment of federal judges especially to
10.
the Supreme Court. And I believe that Senator
11.
Gore goes first.
12. G: Bill Clinton and I suppor:t the right of a woman
13.
to choo:se. That doesn't- ((applause)) That
14.
doesn't mean we're pro: abortion. In fact we
15.
believe there are way too many abortions in this
16.
country and the way to reduce them -is by
reducing 17.
the number of unwanted pregnancies. .hh
not
18.
vetoing family planning legislation the way
George 19. Bush .hh has consistently done. .hhh The
reason we 20.
are prochoice (.) and -in favor of a
woman's right 21.
to privacy .hh is because we
belie:ve that during 22.
the early stages of a
pregnancy .hh that
23.
go:vernment has no: business coming in .hh and
24.
ordering a woman to do what the government thinks
25.
is best. .hh What Dan Quayle: an' (.) George
Bu:sh 26.
an' Jerry Fal:well: uh (.) an': (.) Pat
Robertson 27.
(.) think is the right decision in a
given set of 28. circumstances .hh is their privilege.
.hh but
29.
don't have the government (.) order a woman (.)
to 30. do what they think -is the right thing to do. We
31.
ought to be able to build more (.) common groun:d
32.
(.) among those who describe themselves as
33.
prochoice (.) and prolife (.) in efforts to
reduce 34. the number of unwanted pregnancies. .hhh But
Dan, 35.
you can clear this up very simply by
repeating 36.
after me: (.) I: suppor:t -the ri:ght of
a woman 37. (.) to choo:se. Can you say that?
38.
((light laughter to Q's "this issue"))
39. M: uh- Vice President Quayle, your turn.
40. Q: °Yeah.° (1) Thi- this issue is uh: -an issue that
41.
divides Americans (*) deeply. Uh I happen to be:
42.
(.) uh prolife I have been uh prolife uh (.5)
43.
((applause to "in")) (*) my s- (.8) sixteen
year:s 44. (2) in public life (.8) uhMy: objective and
the 45. president's objective is to (.) try to reduce (.)
46.
abortions in this country. (.8) We have one point
47.
six (.) million abortions (.8) We have more
48.
abortions (.) in Washington dee cee ((D.C.)) than
49.
we do (.) li:ve births. (1.5) Why shouldn't we
50.
have more reflection upon the issue .hh before:
51.
(.) abortion- the decision of abortion is made.
52.
(.8) I would hope that we would agree: upon that
53.
(.) something like a twenty four hour waiting
54.
period, parental notification, (1) I was in Los
55.
Angeles recently and I- (.) talked to a woman (1)
56.
who told me that she had an abortion when she was
57.
seventeen years of age. (1) And looking back on
58.
that she said it was a mistake. She shed (.) she
59.
said I wished at that t:me .hh (.) when I was
60.
going through this difficult time that I had
61.
counselling (.8) to talk about the post abortion
62.
trauma (.8) and talk about adoption (.5) rather
63.
than abortion (1) cause if I had had that
64.
discussion (.5) I woulda had the child. (.8)
Let's 65.
not forget that every abortion stops -a
beating 66. heart. (.8) I think we have far too many
abortions 67.
(.5) in this country (.) in this country
of ours.
68. M: Admiral Stockdale.
69. S: ((makes his statement))
70. M: ...Let's go ahead with the discussion of this
71.
issue.=Senator Gore? (3)
72. G: Well you notice: uh in his respon:se that Dan
did 73. no:t say: (.5) uh I support the right of a woman
74.
to choose. That is becau::se (.) he and George
75.
Bush have turned over (.) their party (.) to Pat
76.
Buchanan and Phyliss Schlaffly who have ordered
77.
them .hh to endorse a platform (.) which makes
78.
-A::ll (.) abortions -illegal (.5) under -Any
79.
circumstances regAR:dless (.) of what has led to:
80.
that (.) decision by a woman. E:ven in ca:ses
(.) 81. of rape -and incest (.) th:eir platform (.)
82.
requi:res (.) that a woman be penalized (.) that
83.
she not be allow:ed to make -a choice (.) if she
84.
believes (.) in consultation with her family, .hh
85.
or her doctor, (.) ah -and others whoever she
86.
chooses (.5) that (.8) sh:e wants to have: -an
87.
abortion after ra:pe or incest. They make [it=
[Do
88. Q:
you 89. support a twenty four hour waiting period
90. G: =completely illegal (.) under any of those:
91.
-circumstances. Now they wanna (.) [waffle
around=
[Do you
92. Q:
support 93. a twenty four hour waiting period
94. G: =on it (.) Let me finish this briefly=Now: (.)
now 95. you wanna waffle arou:nd on it and give the
96.
impre:ssion that maybe you don't really mean what
97.
ya say but again you can clear it up by simply
98.
repeating .hh I suppor:t the ri:ght of a woman to
99.
choose.=Say i[t
[Le- let 'im say it himself.=Let 'im
100. M:
101.
say his own words.((light laughter))=Go ahead
102.
Mister [Vice President
[(Thank) Thank you hhheh .hh Talk about
103. Q:
104.
w:affling around. (2) ((about 2 seconds of
105.
audience laughter, during the pause)) This issue
106.
is a: (.) ver:y (.) important (.8) issue. It has
107.
been: debated throughout your public life: (.)
and 108,
throughout my public life. .hh The one thing
that 109.
I don't think thit is -wise to do: (.) and
that is 110.
to cha:nge your position. .hh At one
time and 111.
m:ost of the time in thee House of
Representatives 112. you had a prolife (.5) [position
[That's (.) simply not
113. G:
114.
[true.
115. Q: [In nineteen eighty seven you wrote a letter and
116.
we'll pass this out [to the media (too) you
wrote=
[s simply not true
117. G:
118. Q: =a letter saying that you oppo:sed taxpayer
119.
funding of abortion. .hh Bill Clinton has the
same
120.
type [(of record)
[In (some) circumstances
121. G:
122. Q: s (hh)oh (y'wanna) qualify it now=
123. G: =An' I still do
124. Q: An' Bill Clinton (.) Bill Clinton (.) when he was
125.
governer of Arkansas also (.) worked with the
126.
right to life people and supported right to life
127.
positions and now he has changed. .hh Talk about
128.
waffling around -it's (.) This is the ta- typical
129.
type of Clinton response on- even on the issue
130.
like abortion .hh he's on both sides of the
issue. 131. .hh Take the na:fta ((N.A.F.T.A.)) agreement
132. G: Oh [(***).
133. Q:
[(*) How long how long did he have (***)
[(*) stick to abortion Mister Vice Pre sident.
134. M:
[
[I know
135. G:
136.
you want to change the subject Dan but let's
137.
[stick on this one for a while
138. Q: [How long how long how long did how long did he
139.
have to wait uhr how (.) uh quickly did he change
140,
his position on education.=He changes his
position 141.
all the time.=.hh
142. G: Let's [deal with this issue f'r a while
[Bill Clinton (.) Bill Clinton has trou:ble
143. Q:
144,
(.) tell:ing: the truth=
145. M: =(*)=
146. Q: =Three words (.8) he fears most
147. M: Does anybody have any [view about the
appointment=
[in the English language
148. Q:
(.) 149.
tell: (.) the truth
150. M: =of judges (*)
151. G: Yeah I- I- I wanna (.) I wanna talk about this
152.
because .hhh the question (.) was not about free
153.
tra::de (.5) or education .hh the [question was=
[Talk about=
154. Q:
155. G: =about lemme- now I let you talk
156. Q: =waffling you're the one that brought up the
issue 157. of waffling (.5)
158. G: Dda[n let (.) n I let you talk l- lemme talk=
[And he's wa:ffled on the abortion issue.
159. Q:
160. G: =now.='s gonna be a long evening if ya- if y'r
161.
like thi:s: now because=
162. Q: =No: i- no it's [not (*)
[(* **)
163. M:
[
[Don't change the subject (.)
164. G:
165.
don't change the subject (.8) because what [you=
[(*)
166. Q:
167.
answer my questions (then) (.5) answer my
168. G: =have- what you have done
169. Q: questions.=on the twenny four hour waiting period
170.
do you support that?
171. G: I: have had [the same position on abortion in=
[Do you support that?
172. Q:
173. G: =favor of a woman's right to choose.=Do you
174.
support a woman's [right to choose
[D'you- d'you support a twenny
175. Q:
176.
four hour [waiting period (to ha:ve reflection.)
[You're still: avoi:ding
177. G:
178.
(.) ((in this micropause, there is no speech by
179.
either party))
180. G: [you're still avoiding the question.
181. Q: [Talk about avoi:ding the question.
182.
((about two seconds of laughter from the audience
183.
and Q or M. Gore cuts in after one and one-half
184.
seconds))
185. G: Na- now wait a minute=lemme tell ya why this is
so 186. important... one of the reasons so many
187.
Republicans are supporting the Clinton Gore .hh
188.
ticket (.) is becau:se they've turned over (.)
the 189.
party .hh to this right wing: -extremist
grou:p 190. .hh which takes positions on issues like
abortion 191.
.hh that don't even allow excep[tions
for rape=
[(*)
192. M:
193. G: =and incest. .hh Again -can't ya just say ya
194.
support the right of a woman to choose?
195. M: (**) Admiral Stockdale a chance to jump in here
if 196. he wants to [if he (*) to
[I would like...
197. S:
198.
((When S is finished, Q asks for 15 seconds to
199.
respond, G then says that he would also like 15
200.
seconds but M insists on moving on to the next
201.
topic.))