At the outset of the Denver Post’s senatorial debate on Tuesday night, a moderator asked Democratic senator Mark Udall the following question: “We know that you support a woman’s right to choose, but given the advances in scientific understanding of fetal development, where pregnant mothers know at which week babies grow fingernails and can swallow, would you support a ban on late-term abortions and if so at what week?”
Udall replied by citing the case of a woman who discovered during the eighth month of pregnancy that her child had a severe brain deformity. “To demand that that woman carry that child to term would be a form of government intervention that none of us want to see happen. We ought to respect the women of Colorado and their point of view,” Udall said.
Udall gave no indication that he supports any legal limits on aborting healthy infants late in pregnancy or any other restrictions on abortion, a position consistent with his voting record.
Update: Via Katie Pavlich, in an interview Udall was specifically asked if he absolutely supported late-term and sex-selective abortion–that is, when people to kill baby girls late in pregnancy because they are girls.
“So you believe in a woman’s absolute right to make her own health care decisions, even if sometimes that includes late-term or sex-selective abortions?” a reporter asked Udall.
“Look, we should trust the woman and her family and her religious counselors and the people she wants to help her make that decision,” Udall replied.