Laura Bush Says She Doesn’t Support Overturning Roe vs. Wade
WASHINGTON — Laura Bush, wife of President-elect George W. Bush, entered the abortion debate Friday and said she does not support overturning the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that gave women the right to terminate a pregnancy.
Laura Bush, in an interview on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, appeared to go further than her husband on the issue.
“I don’t think that it should be overturned,” the incoming first lady said when asked about the Roe vs. Wade decision.
The 1973 Supreme Court decision grants women the constitutional right to have an abortion, and anti-abortion activists would like to see it overturned during a Bush administration.
Asked whether she supports a woman’s right to have an abortion, Laura Bush did not reply directly but said that she agrees with her husband that the number of abortions should be reduced “by talking about responsibility with girls and boys, by teaching abstinence, having abstinence classes everywhere in schools and in churches and in Sunday school.”
The incoming president, who did not emphasize the issue during the presidential campaign, has said he opposes abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman.
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