Several Republican presidential candidates on Monday discussed abortion and sex education, as well as other issues, at the Values Voters Presidential Debate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the AP/Sarasota Herald Tribune reports. Several Republican candidates -- including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) -- did not attend the debate, citing scheduling conflicts.
The seven candidates in attendance -- Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.); Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Ron Paul (Texas) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.); Chicago businessman John Cox; and Alan Keyes, a Maryland conservative and former United Nations diplomat -- told voters they would work to prevent federal funding from going to organizations that perform or promote abortion. The candidates also said they would increase funding for abstinence-based sex education programs and would oppose human embryonic stem cell research (Sedensky, AP/Sarasota Herald Tribune, 9/17).
Several candidates also said they would only appoint judges who are abortion-rights opponents, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Hunter said that if elected, he would not nominate judicial candidates who "can look at a sonogram of an unborn child and not see a valuable human life." Keyes linked abortion to the fight against terrorism, adding, "The killing is the same. The principle is the same." Brownback said the nation needs to return to three basic values: life, family and faith.
Empty lecterns were set up for the absent candidates at the Broward Center for Performing Arts (Man/Ortega, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 9/18). Questions regarding abortion and other issues were addressed to Giuliani, Romney and McCain, the AP/Herald Tribune reports. Jan Folger, president of the group Faith2Action and member of the debate's organizing committee, said the nonattending candidates "will regret the decision," adding, "Because they snubbed us, they will not win, because we will not follow their lead" (AP/Sarasota Herald Tribune, 9/17). The debate was aired on the Internet, the radio and on a religious television channel (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 9/18).
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