Alabama Senate Candidate Doug Jones: ‘Once a Baby Is Born, I Become a Right-to-Lifer’

Ultrasound
AFP/File FRED DUFOUR
Dr. Susan Berry

Alabama Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Doug Jones says he is a “right-to-lifer” once a baby is born, but – before then – he supports abortion up until the day of birth.

Jones told MSNBC’s MTP Daily host Chuck Todd:

Well, look, I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body. And I’m going to stand up for that and I’m going to make sure that that continues to happen.

I want to make sure that as we go forward, people have access to contraception, they have access to the abortion that they might need, if that’s what they choose to do. I think that that’s going to be an issue that we can work with and talk to people about from both sides of the aisle.

When Todd asked him if he would not support legislation that banned late-term abortions, Jones replied:

I’m not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman’s right and her freedom to choose. That’s just the position that I’ve had for many years. It’s a position I continue to have.

But when those people — I want to make sure that people understand that once a baby is born, I’m going to be there for that child. That’s where I become a right to lifer.

Jones faces Republican candidate Judge Roy Moore in a special election on December 12 to fill the Senate seat previously held by now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moore’s campaign website clearly states his pro-life position and his specific call for defunding Planned Parenthood:

I oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, civil unions, and all other threats to the traditional family order.

Federal funding for Planned Parenthood or any form of abortion should be stopped.

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser condemned Jones’s position in a statement:

Doug Jones clearly has no problem with the fact that the U.S. is only one of seven nations – alongside North Korea and China – to allow elective abortion on-demand after five months. His extremism puts him dramatically out of step with Alabama voters.

Alabama is one of twenty states to take a stand against the brutality of late term abortions having approved a state limit in 2011. Polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans – women in higher numbers than men – support bringing our national laws into line with basic human decency, and the House will vote on this measure next week. Jones is out to impress the big abortion lobby but this does nothing for his chances against Judge Moore.

The House will vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) on October 3, a measure that would ban abortions in the United States past the fifth month of pregnancy.

As a candidate for the presidency, President Donald Trump outlined four policy commitments in a letter to pro-life leaders:

  • Nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court
  • Signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide
  • Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women
  • Making the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions

Planned Parenthood, however, tweeted that a restriction on late-term abortions is “unnecessary”:

“It is time that America recognizes and responds to the cries and humanity of these helpless little pain capable babies and the inhumanity of what is being done to them,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) upon the announcement of the House’s upcoming vote. “The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is a step in that direction and it calls to all humane Americans to come together for that purpose.”

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