Q: What will you do to restore legal protection to the unborn?
A: As an O.B. doctor of thirty years, and having delivered 4,000 babies, I can assure you life begins at conception. I am legally responsible for the unborn, no matter what I do, so there’s a legal life there. The unborn has inheritance rights, and if there’s an injury or a killing, there is a legal entity. There is no doubt about it.
2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate - Sep 17, 2007
Q: If abortion becomes illegal and a woman obtains an abortion anyway, what should she be charged with? What about the doctor who performs the abortion?
A: The first thing we have to do is get the federal government out of it. We don’t need a federal abortion police. That’s the last thing that we need. There has to be a criminal penalty for the person that’s committing that crime. And I think that is the abortionist. As for the punishment, I don’t think that should be up to the president to decide.
2007 GOP Youtube debate in St. Petersburg, FL - Nov 28, 2007
On the right-to-life issue, I believe, I’m a real stickler for civil liberties. It’s academic to talk about civil liberties if you don’t talk about the true protection of all life. So if you are going to protect liberty, you have to protect the life of the unborn just as well.
I have a Bill in congress I certainly would promote and push as president, called the Sanctity of Life Amendment. We establish the principle that life begins at conception. And someone says, ‘oh why are you saying that?’ and I say, ‘well, that’s not a political statement -- that’s a scientific statement that I’m making!“
I know we’re all interested in a better court system and amending the constitution to protect life. But sometimes I think that is dismissing the way we can handle this much quicker, and my bill removes the jurisdiction of the federal courts from the issue of abortion, if a state law says no abortion, it doesn’t go to the supreme court to be ruled out of order.
Speeches to 2008 Conservative Political Action Conference - Feb 7, 2008
Voted YES on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad - Bill HR 1646; vote number 2001-115 - May 16, 2001
Voted YES on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info - Bill HR 4691; vote number 2002-412 - Sep 25, 2002
Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research - Bill HR 534; vote number 2003-39 - Feb 27, 2003
Sanctity of Life Act: remove federal jurisdiction - 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate - Sep 17, 2007
Voted YES on banning federal health coverage that includes abortion - Bill H.3; vote number 11-hv292 - May 4, 2011
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Given Dr. Paul's record he is pretty consistently pro-life, but he seems kind of shakey on how much involvement he thinks the federal government should have. On the one hand he says the federal government should get out of it, and on the other he has his Sanctity of Life Act that says the federal government should define life as beginning at conception.
If the federal government is making a law defining life at conception (a scientific fact) how is it not getting involved? If there is a federal law in place then it becomes illegal to have an abortion, because that would be murder, thereby getting the federal government involved pretty handily. He flips on the idea in the same speech to the CPAC. I'm sure there is more to it, but he needs to explain what he meant in that speech I think.
Not sure why he voted no on forbidding human cloning, I saw nothing unrelated to the bill and it was pretty straightforward in making it illegal to perform, participate in, or conduct tests regarding human cloning. I included it in this section given its connection to the birth of humans.
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