Abortion at core of debate
Jon Walker
Argus Leader
published: 10/19/2004
Hopefuls disagree on whether they agree
South Dakota's Senate candidates clashed on abortion rights Monday night,
disagreeing both on their congressional voting records and whether they have any
common ground on the larger issue concerning a woman being able to terminate her
pregnancy.
"Tom tries to be all things to all people," Republican challenger John Thune
said of Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle.
Thune said there have been "83 votes in Tom's 18-year career in the Senate
that National Right to Life rates. Seventy-five out of 83, Tom has voted against
the position and yet comes out in an election year and says, 'Oh, I'm opposed to
abortion.' You can't square those two things. It's not possible."
Daschle, who has said throughout the campaign that he and Thune share many of
the same values, struck that chord again in responding to Thune on abortion.
"John again is confusing the remedy with the issue," Daschle said. "I oppose
abortion very, very strongly. He opposes abortion. I think it's a tragedy. He
thinks it's a tragedy. I think we ought to encourage abstinence. He thinks we
ought to encourage abstinence. I think we ought to do all we can to discourage
abortions. He does. ... And that's the difference."
Their exchange, aired from the KSFY-TV studio in Sioux Falls, came on the
final question in their sixth and final debate before the Nov. 2 election.
As with the previous five, this debate included comments from Daschle on the
importance of his role as minority leader of the U.S. Senate and from Thune
saying Daschle uses his position to keep good laws from passing.
Unlike the others, Monday's session included a short but sustained period of
comic relief when the two men were asked to say what they liked about one
another. Their comments were brief.
And for the second straight night, a candidate pulled a letter from his coat
pocket to make a rhetorical point as if producing a smoking gun in a courtroom.
In a debate Sunday night, Thune produced a letter he said Daschle had signed
in 1986 promising not to raise taxes. On Monday night, Daschle pulled from his
coat a letter he said Thune sent him in 2002 when Congress was working on
legislation to require country-of-origin labeling.
The two men agree on the importance of such labeling on meat imports. Daschle
said Thune's letter encouraged him to continue the fight in the Senate because
the goal couldn't be reached in the House, where Thune was a member.
"It was nice of him to send me a letter asking me to do it because he
couldn't," Daschle said.
The abortion discussion rose as an extension of a question about whether
religion belongs in public schools.
Daschle called it a difficult issue but said the country was founded with the
recognition that "there can't be a state religion."
"As a person who grew up in Aberdeen and acquired the values I did and a
belief and faith and (serving as) an altar boy, I feel very strongly about the
opportunities I had at Sacred Heart School," Daschle said.
"But I went to a parochial school, and I think that is where the
opportunities to learn religion and get an education can combine. But in the
public schools, I think we have to keep that firewall between church and state.
As I said to others who have asked me the question about school prayer, I don't
think I would want my children to say a prayer written by Sun Myung Moon. And I
don't think anybody would do that."
Thune gave the opposite answer.
"I think that it ought to be left to local school districts, and that's why
you aren't going to have a prayer by Sun Myung Moon here probably in South
Dakota," he said.
"There are different faith traditions. Mostly here we're Judeo-Christian, but
if a local school district wants to put up the Ten Commandments, wants to have
voluntary prayer before a football game, before a commencement exercise, I think
that's a decision that ought to be made at that level."
Thune used the opportunity to expand the issue to abortion.
"But I think it does come back to the broader discussion of values. Tom talks
about ... we have the same values. Some of these issues we don't. People know my
position on this issue. When it comes to life issues, I have a 100 percent
record on pro-life issues. People disagree with me on that, but they know where
I stand."
Thune then referred to a campaign letter Daschle wrote in 2002 to help a
Missouri senator in her re-election effort and addressed to supporters of the
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
"Tom is in Washington, D.C., NARAL's poster boy, and in South Dakota runs TV
ads talking about learning his values as an altar boy. I mean, it is awfully
difficult to square those two things. And in an election year, he tries to
become what he thinks people in South Dakota want him to be on some of these
cultural issues."
Daschle is a Roman Catholic, a denomination that officially opposes abortion.
He has said each abortion is a tragedy, but he thinks the procedure should be
reduced, not made illegal.
Thune is an evangelical Christian and has consistently opposed abortion.
A survey in May by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. showed South
Dakotans divided on the issue. The company surveyed 800 people and found:
• 38 percent said abortion should be legal but restricted to specific
circumstances such as rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
• 25 percent said abortion should be illegal and not allowed under any
circumstances.
• 34 percent said abortion should be legal and a decision to be made by a
woman without government interference.
Reach reporter Jon Walker at 331-2206 or 800-530-6397.
