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kerryisms: The senator's caveats and curlicues.

Kerryism of the DayThe senator's caveats and curlicues.

By William Saletan
Posted Friday, July 23, 2004, at 1:18 PM ET
What did he say?

(For instructions on how to read a Kerryism, click here.)

Question: Is abortion a great moral issue to you?
Kerry: Sure it is. Absolutely.1 2 3 4

[1] And I think it's far more complicated than public life allows the discussion for. I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion. Neither Teresa nor I are for abortion. Abortion should be rare

[2] but safe and legal, as President Clinton said so often, and I think appropriately. I think that it's really a question of who should make this decision, and how to arrive at it.

[3] But there is morality. Of course there's morality involved. And we should be talking to people in America about responsibility, about adoption, about other choices. And I want to have a better conversation than I think we've had on it.

[4] But it doesn't change my position on who chooses. And I will protect that right of choice.
—Larry King Live, July 8, 2004

Verbatim:

Sure it is. Absolutely. And I think it's far more complicated than public life allows the discussion for. I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion. Neither Teresa nor I are for abortion. Abortion should be rare, but safe and legal, as President Clinton said so often, and I think appropriately. I think that it's really a question of who should make this decision, and how to arrive at it. But there is morality. Of course there's morality involved. And we should be talking to people in America about responsibility, about adoption, about other choices. And I want to have a better conversation than I think we've had on it. But it doesn't change my position on who chooses. And I will protect that right of choice.

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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.
Photograph of John Kerry by Luke Frazza/Agence France-Presse.
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