Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio clarified his abortion position on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” saying, “I’ll support any legislation that reduces the number of abortions.”
Rubio further stated that, “all human life is worthy of the protection of our laws.”
Marco Rubio: I support any legislation that reduces the number of abortions. So that means a 20 week abortion ban. At five months, a child you know, you recognize it as a human being in an ultrasound image. And I’ll support that. That doesn’t obviously cover the whole gambit. But it reduces the number of abortions. I’ll support any legislation that reduces the number of abortions. And there are those that have that exception in it. I’ve never. What I’ve never done is said I require that it must have or not have exceptions.
Chuck Todd: Why not? Why don’t you think that there should be a requirement of an exception?
Rubio: Well, a couple points. I think first of all, the questions that people as about those two instances are horrifying. I mean I can’t, a rape is an act of violence. It’s a horrifying thing that happens. And uh, fortunately, the number of abortions in this county that are due to rape are very small. Less then one percent of the cases in the world. But they happen. And they are horrifying and they are tragic. And I recognize that. I also recognize that because of the existence of over-the-counter morning after, not to mention medical treatment now available immediately after the assault that should be widely available to victims. We can bring that number down to zero. That being said, I personally and deeply believe that all human life is worthy of the protection of our laws. I do. And I think, I believe that irrespective of the conditions by which that life was conceived or anything else. And for me to be constant on that belief. That’s why I feel so strongly about it. That being said, I recognize that in order to have consensus on laws that limit the number of abortions, a lot of people want to see those exceptions and that’s why I have supported those laws in the past. As has every pro-right— pro-life group in America.