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Q. Isn't it like unionizing: people who can't assert their individual rights can assert them in a group? And women who only follow the traditional path have no protection when men go off and leave them, and then they have no career?
A. So what's the question?
Q. Well, even if you don't approve of women working for, as you might call it, life-style reasons, how about working so that they have a career to fall back on?
A. Absolutely. In both of my marriages, I never once insisted that my wife remain home. Whatever my wife wanted to do, she did. Be it go to school, be it go to work.
Q. Then the only thing you disagree with feminists on is abortion?
A. It's the most profound disagreement. I will never, ever accept that abortion is justified because a child might suffer or it is unwanted. Those are two of the most selfish, unpredictable reasons to abort a child that I can imagine. And they cut to the quick of why I'm opposed to it. If that were applied, Beethoven might not have lived. Jesse Jackson might not have lived, for crying out loud.
Q. I've never known a woman who is happy about having had an abortion. I have met women who are relieved that a child isn't being brought into this world who will have to rely on a mother who isn't going to be there, who has not the means or the wit to raise a child.
A. And I'll tell you, to prove my point about the pro-life or the pro-choice crowd, here on the one hand you've got liberals who want 12 weeks of unpaid leave to have a baby. But don't make them wait 24 hours to decide whether they're going to give birth because "Well, we may not be able to afford the 24 hours because it's going to cause us to miss work and to have to get a hotel room." Well, how are you going to afford three months without a paycheck for parental leave if you can't afford 24 hours off to decide whether to have it?
Q. Are you going to be like Buchanan and go from being a pundit to a politician?
A. I've never wanted to run for elected office because of what you have to do to get there and while you are there. It doesn't strike me as fun, walking around with shackles. I could not walk around with my hand out. You have to pay back with policy. I couldn't do it.