Mike Huckabee and the Abortion Issue

Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, has put his bid in for the bid for the Republican Party's Presidential candidacy. On the issue of abortion, Huckabee has been tagged as a soft supporter with a little wishy-washiness that is similar of that of Rudolf Giuliani. In an interview with John Hawkins of the Right Wing News, Huckabee was quoted as answering a question about Roe vs. Wade, "It would please me because I think Roe v. Wade is based on a real stretch of Constitutional application -- that somehow there is a greater privacy issue in the abortion concern -- than there is a human life issue -- and that the federal government should be making that decision as opposed to states making that decision. So, I've never felt that it was a legitimate manner in which to address this and, first of all, it should be left to the states, the 10th Amendment, but secondly, to somehow believe that the taking of an innocent, unborn human life is about privacy and not about that unborn life is ludicrous."

This stand is supported when Jesse Holland of the Associated Press reported that Huckabee echoed his feelings in a conference call for reporters, "This is an issue to me that is very critical. It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people."

Bloomberg.com contends that he is straddling the fence and not ready to go head to head with the issue. They report Huckabee saying, "He would be willing to sign a bill like the one passed by the South Dakota legislature that outlawed abortion except when a mother's life is at stake to create a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision". But he thinks the abortion argument gets too heated at times. Huckabee added, "I've been guilty of overcharging the rhetoric when it comes to that issue. But that doesn't mean my convictions have changed."