Gillibrand Says Pro-Life Position is Unacceptable, Compares to Racism

DES MOINES, Iowa – Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., interviewed with The Des Moines Register yesterday. She inferred that the pro-life position is “unacceptable” and compared it to racism and anti-semitism.

Kathie Obradovich, the opinion editor at the Des Moines Register, asked her about imposing a litmus test on judicial nominees. Gillibrand said in May that anyone she nominates to the bench would support Roe v. Wade.

“I think there’s some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society decided that the other side is not acceptable. Imagine saying that it’s okay to appoint a judge who’s racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Asking someone to appoint someone who takes away basic human rights of any group of people in America—I don’t think that those are political issues anymore,” Gillibrand told the Register’s editorial board.

“And we believe in this country in the separation of church and state, and I respect the rights of every American to hold their religious beliefs true to themselves, but our country and our Constitution has always demanded that we have a separation of church and state,” she said.

“And all these efforts by President Trump and other ultra-radical conservative judges and justices to impose their faith on Americans is contrary to our Constitution and that’s what this is. And so I believe that for all of these issues, they are not issues that there is a fair other side. There is no moral equivalency when you come to racism, and I do not believe there is a moral equivalency when it comes to changing laws that deny women reproductive freedom,” Gillibrand concluded.

Gillibrand in a poll released by The Des Moines Register on Saturday received less than one percent. The Register’s poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers also found that over three-fourths say that a right to abortion is non-negotiable.

Watch the entire interview below: