Speaking to values voters Friday, Republican presidential nominee Paul Ryan accused President Barack Obama of “giving up any further pretense of moderation” on the issue of abortion and pandering “to the most extreme elements of his party.”
The Wisconsin congressman argued that Obama is much more liberal on abortion than former Democratic President Bill Clinton, whose goal was to make abortion “safe, legal and rare.”
“That was a different time,” Ryan told the crowd at the Values Voters Summit, “and a different president. Now, apparently, the Obama-Biden ticket stands for an absolute, unqualified right to abortion – at any time, under any circumstances, and even at taxpayer expense.”
Ryan – who told the gathering at the start of his remarks that “I’m a values voter too” – said “in this good-hearted country, we believe in showing compassion for mother and child alike.”
“We don’t write anyone off in America,” the vice presidential candidate said, “especially those without a voice. Every child has a place and purpose in this world. Everyone counts, and in a just society the law should stand on the side of life.”
Ryan specifically took issue with the contraception mandates in Obama’s health-care law. “This is what happened to the Catholic Church and Catholic Charities this past January, when the new mandates of Obamacare started coming. Never mind your own conscience, they were basically told, from now on you’re going to do things the government’s way.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, you would be hard pressed to find another group in America that does more to serve the health of women and their babies than the Catholic Church and Catholic Charities,” he said. “And now, suddenly, we have Obamacare bureaucrats presuming to dictate how they will do it.”