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During a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was asked whether he’d allow exceptions for abortion in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother.
Kasich was unequivocal. “Yes,” he said, and left it at that.
In supporting such exceptions, Kasich has allied himself with traditional GOP nominees for president — Mitt Romney, John McCain, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush took similar stances — but distinguished himself from a handful of his competitors in the GOP presidential race.
Both Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio say they oppose abortion in all cases — regardless of whether it was a conception resulting from rape or incest.
Rubio said during the Cleveland debate that he would “pass a law in this country that says all human life at every stage of its development is worthy of protection.”
Later, on CNN, he was more blunt. “I personally believe you do not correct one tragedy with a second tragedy.”
Kasich’s public stance would seem to stamp him as a moderate among the Republican candidates for president, at least on the abortion issue. But he’s not seen that way by Stephanie Kight, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.
Or by Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life.
“He’s no moderate,” said Kight.
“There has never been a governor in the state of Ohio as pro-life as John Kasich,” said Gonidakis.
Since abortion is certain to become an issue in the presidential campaign, here is how Ohio’s governor lines up on that issue.
‘Dark of night’
As governor, Kasich has signed budgets that required abortion clinics to have what are known as patient-transfer agreements within 30 miles of private hospitals. The state budget, however, prohibited publicly financed hospitals from having a transfer agreement with a clinic that offers abortion services.
As a result, five clinics have been forced to shut down in Ohio with only eight remaining.
In 2011, Kasich signed into law a bill that banned late-term abortion. The bill would bar abortions after 20 weeks unless a doctor determines the fetus could not live outside the womb. He also signed a measure that would require ultrasounds for anyone seeking an abortion.
The Ohio Department of Health reports that the vast majority of the 23,216 abortions performed in Ohio in 2013 took place less than nine weeks into pregnancy. The state has said there were 173 recorded abortions after 21 weeks in 2013.
Pro-choice advocates see Kasich in stark terms.
“He has a record a mile long full of restrictions that amount to abortion bans, de-funding family planning, and arbitrary restrictions on clinics,” said Erika West, political director for NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington. “He is absolutely politically aligned on a policy level with an anti-reproductive freedom platform.”
“Kasich has never been a person whose rhetoric has matched his policies on this issue,” West said. “He is well aware being anti-choice is a political liability. So he does his work to restrict reproductive freedom under the dark of night.”
Medicaid fight
Kasich has long opposed abortion except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother. He said as much during a trip to New Hampshire when he was running for president in 1999.
But as a member of the U.S. House in 1995, Kasich sided with abortion opponents in an effort to give states the option to deny using Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions in the case of rape and incest.
The issue arose in 1993 when Congress modified what is known as the Hyde Amendment, which for years had prohibited Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions except to save the life of the mother. Congress that year expanded the exceptions to permit – but not require — states to use Medicaid dollars for rape and incest.
When President Bill Clinton required states to use Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions on rape and incest, congressional Republicans responded in 1995 by approving a bill giving states the option not to include rape and incest.
An amendment sponsored by abortion-rights lawmakers to strike the state option failed, 222-198, with Kasich siding with anti-abortion lawmakers.
“As this bill is now written,” Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said at the time, “states are given the green light to eliminate Medicaid funding of abortions for the most vulnerable members of our society: impoverished victims of rape and incest.”
The bill never became law.
Rob Nichols, the governor’s spokesman, said Kasich has been consistent on the issue of abortion throughout his political career.
“The governor has opposed the use of taxpayer dollars to perform elective abortions, and these votes are consistent with that belief,” he said. “Further, while he was in Congress, he consistently supported the Hyde Amendment which prohibited federal funds being used for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which are exceptions the governor agrees with.”
Two views
Gonidakis said both the Ohio Right to Life and National Right to Life back candidates who support exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.
“Every single movement in the country has various opinions,” he said.
Gonidakis said Ohio has seen “historic lows in the number of abortions,” during his term as governor. His “body of work in Ohio on the pro-life movement speaks for itself,” he said.
Kight has another view.
Kasich, she said, “doesn’t trust women to make their own medical decisions on issues like pregnancy. He is a governor who has allowed law after law put in place that gets in the way of women getting access to the health care that’s best for their family.”
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