Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, said about mothers’ decisions to have abortions, “I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions.”
The next president will appoint at least one justice to the Supreme Court. Early in the debate, moderator Chris Wallace pressed Trump on if, as president, he would want the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Court’s 1973 decision that declared a woman’s “right” to an abortion existing under her right to privacy.
Trump said he would appoint pro-life justices, but stopped short of saying he wanted the Court to overturn the Roe decision. “If that would happen, because I am pro-life and I will be appointing pro-life justices,” he said, “it [the legality of abortion] will go back to the individual states.”
Clinton, for her part, declared her strong support for Roe and also for Planned Parenthood, the “reproductive health care” organization that is the nation’s largest abortion provider. “So many states are putting very stringent regulations on women that block them from exercising their choices to the extent that they are defunding Planned Parenthood, which of course provides all kinds of cancer screenings and other benefits for women in our country,” she said.