Nussle talks to the Register and outlines his position:
By proposing parental consent, Nussle noted that he was drawing attention to his campaign as well as to a divide in the Democratic primary.
Nussle said he would exempt victims of rape and incest. The existing law requires parental notification, which he said is insufficient because it allows teenagers to decide before involving an adult.
Former Iowa economic development director Mike Blouin stands alone among Democratic candidates as an opponent of abortion rights. Blouin, during the taping of an Iowa Public Television public affairs program, declined to say whether he would sign new abortion restrictions.
So Nussle's stand, while Neanderthal, is clearer than Blouin's. And possibly, believe it or not, more progressive.
Unhappy compromises are a reality of politics. In `02 and `04 I helped a state senator a bit; he was great on every other issue but anti-choice. I rationalized that because he was a vote for control, a vote to put pro-choice Democrats in committee chairs and on the dais.
But an executive position is different:
In 2000, 2001 and 2002, Vilsack vetoed bills that would have required doctors to provide information about alternatives to abortion, two of which would have required a 24-hour waiting period.
Those vetoes were worth all the other imperfections of the Vilsack era. And I need to know that my Democratic candidate for governor will commit to those same vetoes.
Nussle may be self-righteous about his birth, but recall that Vilsack is also an adoptee. As a dad by adoption, I'm glad my daughter's birth mom made the CHOICE to give birth. But I wonder how many of the right to life (sic) folks have put their lives behind their rhetoric in that fashion.
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