Government Dictating

 

Transcribed:

Pete Buttigieg:  I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line that we've gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line, and I trust women to draw the line when it's their own health.

Chris Wallace:  So just to be clear, you're saying you would be okay with a woman well into the third trimester deciding to abort her pregnancy.

Buttigieg:  Look, these hypotheticals are usually set up in order to provoke a strong emotional--

Wallace:  It's not hypothetical.  There are 6,000 women a year who get abortions in the third trimester.

Buttigieg:  That's right, representing less than one percent of cases.  So let's put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation.  If it's that late in your pregnancy, then almost by definition you've been expecting to carry it to term.  We're talking about women who have purchased a crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother or viability of the pregnancy that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice.  And the bottom line is as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.