In an new interview, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he would support a Human Life Amendment to the U.S, Constitution that would ban abortion by protecting unborn children under law.
Cain has advanced the pro-life cause throughout his political career but came under fire this past week when he gave an interview to CNN on Wednesday in which he used typical “pro-choice” language about government not making abortion decisions for women that applied, depending on the listener, to either abortions in the case of rape and incest or abortion policy in general. Either way, pro-life advocates have been disappointed following the comments and they have called on Cain to clarify the comments — which he did in a short message on twitter later in the day saying he is “100% pro-life.”
Cain, later Thursday, released a statement saying he is fully pro-life, saying he will appoint the kind of judges who would be inclined to consider reversing Roe v. Wade, and adding that he opposes taxpayer funding of abortions or the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
He followed that up with a Fox News interview on Friday where he said he repeatedly that he wants abortions to be made illegal.
Now, in a new interview with David Brody of CBN News, Cain says he would support a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution to afford legal protection for the 1.2 million unborn children who die in abortions annually since the Roe v. Wade decision.
“Are you for some sort of pro-life amendment to the constitution that in essence would trump Roe v. Wade?” Brody asks.
“Yes. Yes I feel that strongly about it. If we can get the necessary support and it comes to my desk I’ll sign it. That’s all I can do. I will sign it,” Cain responds.
Brody followed up by asking the businessman about how pro-life groups are looking for a president “that’s going to use the bully pulpit on the life issue. It doesn’t mean you have to get bogged down on all of this, but they want to see a president if not advance the legislation at least use the bully pulpit to talk to America about this issue. What’s your sense on that?”
Cain replied: “I believe that the office of the presidency and the bully pulpit should be used for that because I happen to believe that we have many instances where if you appeal to people’s hearts you can change their minds. I had the experience of visiting a facility in Houston, Texas not too long ago. It was a women’s facility, I can’t remember the name. I happened to be there that day, what they do, they work with young ladies who have gotten pregnant and they think they want an abortion. It was so moving to walk in there, and they introduced me to a young lady who had decided not to have an abortion, and see that pretty baby there. If you touch the hearts of people you can get people’s minds to change but you have to show them the beauty of not aborting a life. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the greatest leaders this country has ever seen. How did he bring about the movement that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964? He touched the hearts of people. That’s what a President needs to have the ability to do, in order to change peoples’ minds.”
Brody asked Cain about the lessons he’s learned from the CNN interview that earned him so much negative attention, and Cain said: “The lesson that I’m learning is that I’ve got to be careful of being pigeonholed because people can take a piece of tape and edit out the first half and only pull out one snippet that could start a firestorm. The tape that you are referring to, I said specifically, ‘I am pro-life, from conception, no abortions, no exceptions,’ but they only focus on a later part of it where they were trying to pigeonhole me with a specific situation. So, the lesson learned is beware of being pigeonholed, because you know they can pull it, and take it out of context.”
Cain also added that he can be both a social and fiscal conservative as president: “Yes. You sure can. You sure can because if people trust you they will believe in you and they might rethink some of their thoughts on some of these social issues.”
