McCain Mocks Women's Health

Finally, John McCain and Barack Obama are put on record on some key women's issues. It could be a revelation for many voters, especially McCain's tone and body language in mocking health exemptions from abortion bans.

McCain had criticized Barack Obama for not supporting an array of anti-abortion bills in the Illinois state Legislature. Obama said he had not backed them because they lacked exemptions to protect the health and life of the mother.

Here's what McCain responded, his voice rising in moral indignation: "He's (for) health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote 'health.'"

The way McCain exaggerated the pronunciation of "health," including putting in hand gestures to indicate quotations, was reminiscent of his running mate Sarah Palin's belittling of "community organizer" in her maiden speech to the Republican convention. That was Palin's thinly veiled mockery of Obama's early organizing experience in Chicago.

McCain's "health" exemption statement Wednesday showed his to be the extreme position: He differed with current law. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down abortion bans that do not contain exemptions for the health and life of the mother.

McCain said he wants abortion decisions to be decided by the states, ending the federal guarantees for it under Roe. Asked by moderator Bob Schieffer if he would consider someone for the court who "had a history of being for abortion rights," McCain answered in a convoluted way: "I would consider anyone in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test."

The third and final network-sponsored debate between Republican presidential nominee McCain and Democratic nominee Obama touched on three key issues: appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court that will affect women's rights well beyond the landmark Roe v. Wade reproductive rights ruling; current state legislative attempts to restrict legal abortion, including health exemptions for the mother; and pay inequities as reflected by the recent Supreme Court rebuff to Alabama factory worker Lilly Ledbetter.

The network debates came as months-long talks continued about a Lifetime TV "conversation" with Obama and McCain on women's issues, with candidates interviewed sequentially rather than participating in a face-to-face debate.

Wednesday night's debate could be a taste of more to come -- or it could be all that women's groups get in terms of grilling the presidential nominees in depth this campaign.

Obama called abortion "a very difficult issue, and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on. But what ultimately I believe is that women, in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision. And I think that the Constitution has a right to privacy in it that shouldn't be subject to state referendum, any more than our First Amendment rights are subject to state referendum."

He talked about the importance of the next president's appointments to the Supreme Court. He said he would "look for those judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through."

Then he made a segue into the pay equity issue, noting that Congress has failed so far to overturn the Supreme Court ruling against Lilly Ledbetter, for whom a bill is named. The Supreme Court had said her pay discrimination claim against a tire company came too late -- decades after she got her first paycheck that was substantially lower than men doing the same job at the same plant. The fact that she had only learned about the pay disparity recently made no difference to the justices: The time had expired.