Asked About Late Term Abortions, Beto Says Planned Parenthood Saves Lives

EXCERPT:

O'ROURKE: "Thank you for being here, Claire, and for the question and for your advocacy. So, I’ll try to find that common ground and I’ll tell you how I did it in Texas. I talked about going to every county, no matter how red, how conservative, how Republican, and giving the same message and talking about a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own body, by connecting it not just to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, but the lives that we are losing today in this country as we’ve shut down all these family planning clinics in my home state of Texas. We’ve made it so hard for women to just get any kind of health care at all, including access to a legal, safe abortion which, you know, as long as I’ve been alive, actually passed or decided the year after I was born, that’s been the law of the land. And so, no one wants to see people die in the wealthiest and most powerful country on the face of the planet for lack of care, so when I connected back that family planning clinics, Planned Parenthood, to be specific, in Texas is saving the lives of our fellow women and it’s a life-and-death matter in this country. Three times as deadly for women of color in this maternal mortality crisis that we have right now. I think I can find some common ground to ensure that we see the larger picture and our national public shared interest going forward. So I’ll make sure that I respect those with differing points of view, that I’m listening to everybody, that I share what I just shared with you, but never compromise on the fundamental principle that health care also means every woman makes her own decisions about her own life.And that will be the test for us and whoever we nominate to the Supreme Court."