Clinton and Trump clash early over abortion

One of the early clashes between the candidates in the final debate was over so-called partial-birth abortion — an abortion procedure that is sometimes performed later in pregnancy that Hillary Clinton has said should remain legal and that Donald Trump opposes.

After saying he would appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court on the assumption that they would overturn Roe v. Wade, Trump said: “I think it’s terrible in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. You can say that that’s OK and Hillary can say that that’s OK, but that’s not OK with me.”

Clinton responded that this was a misinterpretation of how late-term abortion works. Late-term abortion is not used as a whim or as birth control late in pregnancy, but rather is a choice of last resort for women who “toward the end of their pregnancy get the worst news they can get, that their health is in jeopardy if they continue to carry to term, or that something terrible has happened or just been discovered about the pregnancy.”

In those cases, she said, where a live, healthy birth is not possible, or the life or health of the mother is at stake, “I do not think the government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions. The government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith [and] with medical advice, and I will stand up for that right.”