Ted Cruz on Abortion Republican Texas Senator

No exceptions for rape or incest; de-fund Planned Parenthood

Ted Cruz (R): Ban. No exceptions for rape or incest. "Horrible as that crime is, I don't believe it's the child's fault."

Beto O'Rourke (D): Legal. Ensure abortions are rare, but trust women to make their own decisions without government interference.

Q: Employers can withhold contraceptive coverage if disagree?

Ted Cruz (R): Yes. Proposed bill to allow that.

Beto O'Rourke (D): No. Discriminates by ignoring contraception's role in women's health.

Q: Let Planned Parenthood get public funds for non-abortion care?

Ted Cruz (R): No. Was willing to risk a government shutdown in in order to defund.

Beto O'Rourke (D): Yes. Provide important preventive services, esp. for low-income families.

Planned Parenthood sells body parts of unborn human beings

Allow vote to end Planned Parenthood's funding

Cruz capitalized on the conservative theory of why Obama had been elected president: Republicans only lost when they went easy on Democrats. Any Republican who forgot that was going to lose to Hillary Clinton.

Prosecute Planned Parenthood for criminal violations

The next thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into these videos and to prosecute Planned Parenthood for any criminal violations.

The next thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS to stop persecuting religious liberty, and then intend to cancel the Iran deal, and finally move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

I will keep my word. My father fled Cuba, and I will fight to defend liberty because my family knows what it's like to lose it.

Ban taxpayer funding of abortion & partial birth abortion

Companies can deny insuring birth control

Protect innocent human life with partial-birth ban

Ted successfully defended Texas's Rider 8, which prohibits state funds for groups that provide abortions.

Opposes public abortion funding.

Christian Coalition publishes a number of special voter educational materials including the Christian Coalition Voter Guides, which provide voters with critical information about where candidates stand on important faith and family issues. The Christian Coalition Voters Guide summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: "Public funding of abortions"

Opposes churches providing birth control.

Christian Coalition publishes a number of special voter educational materials including the Christian Coalition Voter Guides, which provide voters with critical information about where candidates stand on important faith and family issues. The Christian Coalition Voters Guide summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: "Requiring religious groups to cover birth control & abortion in insurance"

Protect infant survivors of abortion.

S.311/H.R.962: Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act: Congress finds the following:

• If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States, and entitled to all the protections of such laws.
• (2) Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care.
• In the case of an attempted abortion that results in a child born alive, any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.

Opposing argument from Rewire.com, "Born Alive Propaganda," by Calla Hales, 4/12/2019: From restrictive bans at various points of pregnancy to a proposed death penalty for seeking care, both federal and state legislators are taking aim at abortion rights. The goal? To make abortion illegal, criminalizing patients and providers in the process. One kind of bill making a recent resurgence is the "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act." These bills aim to further the false narrative that abortions regularly occur immediately before or, according to the president, at the time of birth. Intentional action to end the life of an infant is already illegal. This is covered by federal and state infanticide laws. These bills do nothing but vilify physicians who provide reproductive health care.

Legislative outcome Referred to Committee in House; Senate motion to proceed rejected, 56-41-3 (60 required).