SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (ABP) — Differences on abortion rights, stem-cell research and even the veracity of evolution became evident among the Republican presidential candidates in their first major debate May 3.
While Democrats — who held their first debate a week earlier — mainly steered clear of controversial social issues, the GOP candidates dove into the issues most important to their conservative religious base.
The process revealed one of the most ideologically diverse Republican fields in years.
Of the 10 candidates, only three raised their hands when asked by a moderator if they disagreed with evolutionary theory. They were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is an ordained minister and former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention; Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a Catholic convert from evangelical Protestantism; and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose congressional biography describes him as an “evangelical Presbyterian.”
None of the anti-evolution candidates are among the party's front-runners.
One of the field's top candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain, qualified his answer to the evolution question by saying that, while he may believe life has evolved on Earth, he also believes a divine force guided its development. “I believe in evolution. But I also believe that when I hike in the Grand Canyon and see a sunset that the hand of God is there, also.”
Only one of the candidates affirms abortion rights — and he seemed to modify his position during the debate. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, when asked about his pro-choice position, reiterated his simultaneous personal disapproval of abortion but support for a woman's right to have one.
That position is similar to many prominent Democrats in the presidential campaign and one Giuliani has long publicly espoused. However, he has recently begun staking out new ground on abortion rights, saying that he would appoint “strict constructionist” judges to the federal courts if elected president.
The term refers to a school of jurisprudence that many conservatives believe would rule out finding a right to abortion in the Constitution, as the Supreme Court did in its famous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
During the debate, Giuliani said he would be “O.K.” if the court overturned Roe. Such an action would return decisions about the legality of abortion to the states.
Giuliani also said he would be fine if a judge upheld Roe because it is a long-standing precedent.
The candidates also disagreed on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, with two of the three front-runners in support and many of the other candidates opposed. McCain and Giuliani support the research, which many scientists believe could lead to cures for terminal illnesses. But former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — as well as the second- and third-tier candidates in the field — oppose it. Many social conservatives disapprove of the research because the embryos used are destroyed in the process — tantamount to abortion, some conservatives say.
Romney was also pressed on his past support for abortion rights, which he now opposes. He cited GOP heroes who changed their minds on abortion late in their careers — including President Ronald Reagan, at whose California presidential library the debate took place. “I said I was wrong and changed my mind and said I'm pro-life,” Romney said. “And I'm proud of that, and I won't apologize to anybody for becoming pro-life.”
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