Eddie Mauro, who is running for the Democrat Party’s nomination in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, appeared on the Simon Conway Show on WHO Radio on Monday evening. Conway asked him his position on abortion.
Conway: Let’s talk about abortion. Should government, should my tax dollars pay for abortion?
Mauro: Should your tax dollars pay for abortion?
Conway: Yes, it’s called the Hyde Act.
Mauro: So I think tax dollars should be used for certain instances for abortion where it is necessary for the life of the mother or special circumstances.
Conway: What are these special circumstances?
Mauro: I think the government should be paying for education.
Conway: So you would repeal the Hyde Act.
Mauro: I think the Hyde Amendment should be…
Conway: Hyde Amendment
Mauro: Hyde Amendment, yeah, so I think the government should be paying for the education – to talk about sex education and for contraception.
Conway: We’ll do education on another day, I don’t think the government should pay for sex education, by the way, that’s my job as a dad, not the government’s job. Why is it the government’s job to do my job? I’m a parent.
Mauro: We are all the same so there isn’t two separate entities.
Conway: We are not all the same, we are all different.
Mauro: It is the government working with people and communities to help build a better world.
Conway: Government is always the problem, never the answer, especially when it comes to sex education. Let’s go back to abortion. How late should we allow abortion in this country?
Mauro: That is always up to doctors and mothers.
Conway: But if you had to vote on it? If you had to vote on it would you all the way up immediately prior to birth?
Mauro: So there is no date that would be too late.
Conway: So immediately up to, prior to birth, so we could be talking about nine months.
Mauro: I think under special circumstances…
Conway: At nine months?
Mauro: Your party has done a good job trying to…
Conway: I don’t have a party, I am an independent.
Mauro: So the Republican Party has done a good job of trying to flip that and make it seem like a…
Conway: I am asking you as an independent. I am independent.
Mauro: I am trying to answer your question. So the question is..
Conway: Nine months or less.
Mauro: I think between mothers and families and doctors that they should be able to make decisions in dire circumstances, they need to make decisions at any point of the pregnancy.
Conway: Nine months or less?
Mauro: Nine months or less. At any point of the pregnancy.
Conway: At nine months, any point of the pregnancy and we should pay for it because you want to repeal the Hyde Act.
Listen to that segment below:
Mauro’s position on the Hyde Amendment is unclear. The Hyde Amendment, named after the late Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, first passed in 1976 barred federal funding for abortion with the exception of saving the life of the mother, and in the case of pregnancies that arise from rape or incest.
Mauro specifically mentioned special circumstances such as the life of the mother, something that is already allowed in federal law with the Hyde Amendment.
He never gave a definitive yes or no to Conway’s question (he started to answer, but he was cut off). I would like to know exactly what he believes about the Hyde Amendment and what taxpayer funding should cover.
Mauro made an alarming statement about sex education as he responded to Conway’s remark that the government should not pay for sex education because that is his job as a parent to do.
“We are all the same so there isn’t two separate entities,” Mauro said.
What does he mean by that? How are we the same? Does he believe the government has the same role and responsibilities as parents in the upbringing of their children? How are they not separate? Where can’t government encroach upon parents? Do parents have rights?
What is clear – Mauro supports abortion up to birth and that is extreme.
Listen to the full interview:
Photo credit: Eddie J. Mauro/Facebook