Mike Huckabee Presidential Campaign, 2016#Abortion

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee

Political offices: Former Governor of Arkansas (1996-2007) Former Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (1993-1996)

Huckabee on the issues:

Taxes • Banking policy • Government regulations • International trade • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Healthcare • Immigration • Education • Abortion • Gay rights

Republican candidate:

Donald Trump

Ballotpedia's presidential election coverage 2024 • 2020 • 2016

This page was current as of the 2016 election.

• Campaigning in Iowa on January 24, 2016, Mike Huckabee said his Republican rivals’ calls to defund Planned Parenthood were insufficient. “If all a candidate can promise is stop funding to Planned Parenthood, that isn’t enough for me. That’s low-hanging fruit. Let’s do something bolder than that. Let’s stop abortion completely,” he said.^[2]

• During an interview on CNN's State of the Union on November 29, 2015, Huckabee criticized Planned Parenthood for blaming the November 27, 2015, attack on a Colorado facility on anti-abortion activists. He said, "I don't know of any pro-life leader... who has suggested violence toward Planned Parenthood personnel or some act of violence toward their clinics.” He added that it is "a little bit disingenuous on the part of Planned Parenthood to blame people who have a strong philosophical disagreement with the dismembering of human babies and with the selling of body parts." Huckabee called the attack an act of domestic terrorism.^[3]

• Huckabee tweeted against Planned Parenthood on September 29, 2015, “#PlannedParenthood isn’t a "healthcare provider" any more than #Benghazi was a ‘spontaneous protest.’”^[4]

• During an August 2015 interview with Iowa radio host Simon Conway, Huckabee said that if he were president, he would have the U.S. Department of Justice "criminally prosecute Planned Parenthood for violating federal law and selling body parts." He also discussed how he would make abortion illegal. He said, "I would also invoke the 15th and Fourteenth Amendments. This is the power that we have to stop this incredible, barbaric scourge of abortion. Not just stop funding Planned Parenthood, but we need to invoke the Fifth and 14th Amendment. The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process for every person. The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law for every person."^[5]

• On August 12, 2015, Huckabee posted the following comments about his effort to defund Planned Parenthood on his Facebook page:
  

  Mike Huckabee's Facebook page from August 12, 2015

• During a July 22, 2015, appearance on Fox News, Huckabee suggested the debate over defunding Planned Parenthood was an opportunity to address "America’s nightmare of abortion." Huckabee explained, "It's time for this country to decide whether or not we believe that the willful destruction of a human body, a human life and talking about the selling of parts of a baby as if we were trading parts for a Buick at an auto parts store, whether it's time to decide that's not civilized behavior."^[6]

• In a July 2015 interview with LifeNews, Huckabee said more must be done to stop abortion than defunding Planned Parenthood. He explained, "It’s not enough to say we’ll end funding for these butchers at Planned Parenthood. We need to end the disgusting disregard for human life that is the foundation for the infanticide that is beneath the dignity of our nation. We didn’t end slavery by just limiting how many slaves a person could own or for how long—we recognized that it is a violation of basic human rights. Let’s stop this slaughter and ask God’s forgiveness for not doing it sooner."^[7]

• At a campaign stop in Iowa on August 26, 2015, Huckabee compared the acts of the Islamic State to abortion. “Let us not be too smug in this country. Because we have sins to answer for. Since 1973, 60 million unborn children have died in their mother’s womb. If I’m president I will invoke the Fifth and 14th Amendment of the Constitution and protect unborn life,” Huckabee said.^[8]

• On August 16, 2015, Mike Huckabee said he supported Paraguay’s decision to deny access to abortion for a 10-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather. “A 10-year-old girl being raped is horrible. But does it solve a problem by taking the life of an innocent child? That's really the issue. … There are two victims. One is the child; the other is that birth mother who often will go through extraordinary guilt years later when she begins to think through what happened – with the baby, with her. And again, there are no easy answers here,” Huckabee said.^[9]

• On July 31, 2015, Huckabee hinted he would be willing to use federal forces to stop abortions. When asked if he would send the FBI or the National Guard to shut down abortion clinics, Huckabee answered, “We’ll see if I get to be president.”^[10]

• Huckabee elaborated on his position that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments should be invoked to combat abortion during an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on August 8, 2015. “We have not provided either of those constitutional rights to unborn children. The only way that we can not do it is if we do not consider them persons. So do we consider unborn children to be persons or blobs of unanimated, or maybe animated, protoplasm. And that’s really the determining factor, because once we determine that they are persons – and as president I believe they are – then we have a constitutional obligation to protect them,” Huckabee said.^[11]

• On July 22, 2015, Huckabee called a federal court’s decision to strike down North Dakota’s “fetal heartbeat” law earlier this week “an unconstitutional, immoral act of judicial tyranny.” He said in a statement, “The people of North Dakota came together and decided to prohibit abortions after one could detect a fetal heartbeat. The court has no authority to reject this law and invalidate or ignore the will of the people. I stand with the people of North Dakota and reject this ruling.”^[12][13]

• On his 2016 presidential campaign website, Huckabee wrote, "Life begins at conception. This isn’t just a Biblical view — it’s affirmed by modern science and every unique human DNA schedule, which is present at conception. As Governor, I promoted and signed a fetal protection act. I imposed a ban on partial birth abortion, established waiting periods, created parental notification requirements, and passed a bill so mothers who brought a newborn to a hospital or fire station would not be prosecuted for child abandonment."^[14]

• In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" in January 2008, Huckabee stated he support outlawing abortion without exceptions for rape or incest because, "I always am going to err on the side of life. I believe life is precious."^[15]

• At a 2011 fundraiser for a Mississippi campaign to criminalize abortion in the state, Huckabee said of opponents of the measure, "You have no idea how many millions of dollars are likely to be poured into your state and it’s not stimulus money and economic development and job creation, it is hardcore political money that is designed to preserve the abortion industry which is a multimillion dollar industry specifically designed in order to terminate life and make people rich. Let’s not kid ourselves; this is not about elevating women this is about elevating wealth on behalf of those who profit from the sale of death."^[16]

• In 2007, Huckabee suggested the reason "we're importing so many people in our workforce" could be that "for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973."^[17]

• In Huckabee's 2001 "State of the State" address for Arkansas, he said, "We will propose in this session that this General Assembly do something I hope won't be controversial but will be a matter of conviction for all of us. That is to provide for every person who's contemplating the termination of her child during pregnancy that she has information, knowing fully and completely the procedure that is taking place and what it will mean. Commonly called the woman's right-to-know legislation, it really goes back to school, back to educating people." The Woman's Right to Know Act of 2001 was passed and became effective on May 1, 2001.^[18][19]

• In 1996, Huckabee "refused to authorize a Medicaid payment for an abortion for a 15-year-old girl whose stepfather has been charged with incest, despite a Federal judge's order that such payments were required by Federal law." Huckabee's aides stated the opposition was representative of his commitment to the Arkansas Constitution, which barred the use of public money for abortions except where the mother's life was endangered, than his personal opposition to abortion. ^[20]

Recent news[edit]

This section links to a Google news search for the term Mike + Huckabee + Abortion

See also[edit]

• Mike Huckabee
• Mike Huckabee presidential campaign, 2016

Footnotes[edit]

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