Proposals allowing late-term procedures spark outrage

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," January 30, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD GILBERT, R-VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES: She has physical signs that she is about to give a birth. Would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so certified? She's dilating.

KATHY TRAN, D-VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES: Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman --

GILBERT: I understand that. I'm asking if your bill allows that.

TRAN: My bill would allow that, yes.

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, D-VA: When we talk about third trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physician, more than one physician, by the way, and it's done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that is nonviable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that is what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue, we want the decision to be made by the mothers and their providers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: Virginia governor getting a lot of reaction to that comment, reacting to, you saw the discussion in the Virginia State House about a bill that had to deal with late-term abortion. The bill was defeated, which is important to point out, but this conversation is happening in different state houses around the country about what to do with abortion rights, pro-choice bills.

This particular day has brought a lot of reaction. Ben Sasse, Senator, released a statement, "This is morally repugnant. In just a few years pro- abortion zealots went from safe, legal, and rare, to keep the newborns comfortable while the doctor debates infanticide. I don't care what party you are from. If you can't say that it's wrong to leave babies to die after birth, get the hill out of public office." Marco rubio, "I never thought I would see the day America had government officials who openly support legal infanticide." Nikki Haley, "What is happening in our country? This literally makes me sick to my stomach. Adoption is always an option." The Virginia governor's office put out a clarifying statement, saying he did still support the bill but he was talking about a specific part of it.

Let's bring in our panel, "Washington Post" columnist Marc Thiessen, Amy Walter, national editor for the "Cook Political Report," and Tom Bevan, Real Clear Politics co-founder and president. Marc?

MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: This reminds me of back in 2010 when Senator Barbara Boxer was pilloried because she asked when does the right to life begin, and she said when you bring the baby home. We've now come back to this being the official position of the governor of Virginia and, quite frankly, the Democratic Party. This is another example of the Democrats putting themselves outside of the mainstream of America by taking radical positions that are completely out of touch with most Americans. Even a majority of pro-choice Americans find the idea of third trimester abortions abhorrent. A Gallup poll shows that 60 percent of American support first trimester abortions. It drops to 28 percent in the second trimester, third trimester just 13 percent. And I bet you if you ask those Americans if you support the date of birth, it would be almost zero.

BAIER: This is -- well, frankly, it's a tough issue for Democrats when you start talking about third term late abortions. You saw President Trump as candidate really attack Hillary Clinton on this in at least one debate, several times, though, and some people said that was one of his better exchanges with candidate Hillary Clinton.

AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": This is also one of these issues, and we are seeing it happening at the state legislative level because we saw a change in power and many of these states, right. Either the legislature changed or the governor changed. And we saw this on the Republican side back in 2011 going the other way.

And so when we talk about the issue and polling on the issue of abortion, this is where we end up. You have about a quarter of Americans who believe there should be no restrictions at all, about a quarter that say there should be no abortions at all, and then the rest of the country says there should be under certain circumstances, there can be restrictions. And so the debate then is always over what does certain circumstances mean.

In the battles in 2011 and 2012, Democrats were arguing that Republicans were going above and beyond what should be considered appropriate conditions. Vaginal ultrasounds, which was what was happening in Virginia, that was a controversy a few years ago, right. What should those rules be? Now it's going to be the debate over this. And so I think just as there was a big backlash on the vaginal ultrasound, there will be a backlash on this, and you end up with legislation that may just end up on the margins rather than all the way over.

BAIER: But I guess listening to the governor and his explanation, he is a doctor. It was jarring for a lot of people listening to that, and it may be wakes up people to this issue on the statewide basis and perhaps on the federal basis.

TOM BEVAN, REAL CLEAR POLITICS CO-FOUNDER: I agree. Amy is right about the polling, but Marc is also right on the polling. This Gallup poll which was taken just in May of 2018, 80 percent of people think it should be illegal, abortion should be illegal in the third term. And if you get right up to the end, it would be even higher than that.

BAIER: Let me just put up some other numbers. This is Marist, Knights of Columbus is part of this pole. Views on abortion now, pro-choice, pro- life, you see the breakdown. Let's go to abortions should be made available to, and when Amy was talking about this, this is how they break it down. "Anytime," you see first three months, "Rape, incest, or to save the mother," and there you see the breakdown. When do you believe a person's life begins? At conception, 42 percent, and you see the breakdown there and the percentages. Again, this is a recent poll January 8th through the 10th. And then the Supreme Court and abortion, make it legal without restriction, allow states to make certain restrictions, and that's where the majority is. It's a plurality, but go ahead.

BEVAN: Well, this is part of the -- we are seeing this backlash. I think Democrats are pushing for this because they are afraid of the Supreme Court and if it revisits Roe v Wade. But it's one thing to do it in New York, for example. But Virginia is not New York, it's not California.

BAIER: And by the way, New York is doing it.

BEVAN: And New York has done it, yes. But Virginia is not -- it's a purple state, it's trending blue, but it is not a deep blue state in that same way. So I think that's why it's generating a lot more heat and controversy.

BAIER: Where does this end up? The Supreme Court?

THIESSEN: It probably does, absolutely. And look, the difference is between what the Republicans are doing and what Democrats are doing now. Republicans, when they were putting restrictions on abortion, that was a 75 percent position. That Knights of Columbus poll you showed said 75 percent would support abortion only in the first three months, the cases of rape or incest, save the life of the mother, or only to save the life of the mother. So when Republicans are putting reasonable restrictions on abortion, those are things, the 75 percent position.

What Democrats are doing are doing a 13 percent or less position, which is saying up until the moment of birth. If you want to see a party that has officially become a party of death, that's it.

BAIER: We'll see how this plays out. I think we are going to see a lot of iterations of this as we head into 2020. And speaking of which, health care taking center stage, Democrats line up to be a part of the 2020 race. We'll talk about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD SHULTZ, FORMER STARBUCKS CEO: To come out with the suggestion that we are going to eliminate, eradicate the insurance industry is just, it's such a -- it's so false. And it speaks to the level of politics that we now have.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The bottom line and the most important is that everyone have access to health care. That is the goal.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, D-FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I think you could never afford that. You're talking about trillions of dollars, and it's just not a practical thing.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT: We have got to fight to do exactly what every other country does and guarantee health care to all people as a right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: It seems like this will be the battle in the Democratic primary, at least right now. We're back with the panel. Amy, you see the dichotomy there. Obviously, Howard Schultz is considering running as an independent, Michael Bloomberg considering as a Democrat. But paying for it, the reality of it, and insurance companies going by the wayside, that's a big deal.

WALTER: And what Medicare for all means, and Democrats benefited from the fact that in 2018, Medicare for all could mean whatever you wanted it to mean. They were two words put together that everyone likes, "all," and "Medicare."

BAIER: Sure.

WALTER: It sounds great, until you have to explain how that is actually going to work. And if you are a Democrat running right now for president, you have to embrace this in some way, shape, or form. Everybody is going to out and say we have all these different ideas. It's going to be a buy- in, it's going to be single-payer, it's going to be this.

BAIER: Tom Perez spent a lot of time, 90-10, 10 percent.

WALTER: And we're going to have that, and we're going to have this and we're going to have that.

Ultimately, to me what I find the most fascinating is in 2010, the Affordable Care Act passes. Democrats spend zero time talking about it, they don't run it. In 2012, the president literally does not run one ad talking about this law. 2014, Democrats don't want to talk about it. 2016, Democrats don't want to talk about it. Now suddenly we've moved beyond the Affordable Care Act and we are way into this.

The only person really, besides, Michael Bloomberg, though, that I think would be defending it would be somebody like Joe Biden, if he decides to get in. Obviously, he was --

BAIER: Saying he got paid for it, blah, blah, blah.

WALTER: Or saying, let's stop talking about Medicare for all, let's talk about making the Affordable Care Act better. And that is literally the challenge. I think this was in the Kaiser poll, but 51 percent of Democrats say they wish, they want Democrats to focus on fixing the Affordable Care Act, 38 percent said they want Democrats to focus on Medicare for all. Look at that. It's like --

BAIER: It's magic. It's magic.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: I just want to take everybody in the time machine back to the time when Obamacare was being put up for a boat. I interviewed President Obama at the time. A lot of talk about this is not the camel's nose under the tent toward single-payer. This is not everybody is going to get free health care. This is not Canada, this is not the U.K., stop talking like that, it's just a Republican talking point. Here we are.

BEVAN: Here we are. And that's what Kamala Harris the other night at that town hall. She made the Kinsley gaffe. She said what she truly believes, which was let's just eliminate it, let's move on. We'll go to single- payer. That's where the energy in the party, it's even broadly popular among some Republicans, but certainly among Democrats, 70 plus percent are in favor of Medicare for all or single-payer. It depends on what you call it. If you call it single-payer, it goes down about 10 points.

BAIER: Medicare for all is really a wonderfully packaged praise.

BEVAN: And if you ask people in polls, how are you going to pay for it, if you have to raise taxes, it goes down even further. So Democrats are going to, one, figure out what they want to go for, and then explain to the public how they're going to pay for it. And that's the tricky part.

THIESSEN: This is why Howard Schultz is not running in the Democratic primary, is because the Democratic Party has moved so far left from the time of Barack Obama saying we're not going to nationalize your health care, we're not going to do the U.K., to now, that he felt he couldn't get the nomination running as a normal, moderate, centrist Democrat, and so he has to run on the outside.

And the Democrats are upset about this not just because he's going to split the anti-Trump vote, but because he is constantly calling them out about how far left they've gone. He called Elizabeth Warren's new wealth tax ridiculous. He said Kamala Harris' plan was not American. He called out Ocasio-Cortez on the 70 percent tax, saying that's not what Americans want. He has ripped Medicare for all, government paid college. He said there is nothing free, there is nothing free. That's not what the Democrats want to hear. What the Democrats message is, we can give you all of this free stuff, and you don't have to pay for it. We are just going to tax the billionaires, and he's there telling them, guess, what, that's not going to work.

BAIER: I only have 30 seconds here, but he could also potentially be the only candidate in the race who is talking about the deficit and debt and entitlement reform.

WALTER: Yes, which is very low down on the list to where Americans want to talk about that. I do think that more than taxes, the issue really of doctors and access, right, is going to be a bear question.

BAIER: We will have many panels ahead to talk about this. Thank you. When we come back, the polar whether in the Midwest is not stopping some local heroes lending a hand. We'll show you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: It's cold here in Washington, but let's be honest, it's not anywhere near as cold as the Midwest as people around the country snowed in. The polar vortex bearing down on the Midwest. The goodness of people is warming hearts all over the area. Here's a couple we thought we would bring you.

The Lomira High School wrestling team in Wisconsin spent one of their snow days outside, well below freezing temperatures in Wisconsin, so they could shovel sidewalks and driveways all around their community. Way to go, guys. That's a good workout, too.

In Iowa, firefighters went above and beyond to help one woman after she went into labor on Monday. The woman's aunt captured this photo of two firefighters who decided to shovel the driveway while the other responders were inside helping deliver the baby. I would work on that delivery first before it was nice to have the driveway cleared, too. Mama and baby are doing just fine. Good stuff.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the “Special Report.” Fair, balanced, and unafraid. Here's Martha.

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