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.))