index 22073, As Reproductive Rights Hang In The Balance, Debate Moderators Drop The Ball

WASHINGTON -- Forty-three years after the Supreme Court established the right to a safe and legal abortion in Roe v. Wade, the stakes have never been higher for those on both sides of the abortion debate. States have enacted 288 new abortion restrictions in the past five years that have shut down a slew of clinics across the country, and the next president could nominate Supreme Court justices who will determine the fate of legal abortion for decades to come. But even as abortion access for millions of women hangs in the balance, the issue has somehow been neglected by presidential debate moderators, causing the issue of reproductive rights to fade from the 2016 race. The Democratic candidates haven't been asked about reproductive rights at all in any of their four debates, and the Republicans have only been asked about abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood in the first two of the six debates they've participated in so far. Advocates working for and against abortion rights are baffled by the silence. “There are real and important differences between candidates here, and it's a loss for American women that they haven't been explored,” said Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for EMILY’s List, a group that helps elect pro-choice women to office. NBC moderators did not ask how Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) new health plan, released just two hours before the Democratic debate the network hosted Sunday, would handle public funding for abortion, and did not press Hillary Clinton on her view that federal restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion should be repealed. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) haven't been asked in the past four GOP debates about their opposition to allowing victims of rape or incest to get abortions, a position that is significantly more conservative than those held by prior Republican presidential nominees. The only abortion-related question GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has fielded during a debate was back in August, when Fox's Megyn Kelly asked him about his 1999 comment that he was "very pro-choice." His stance on abortion is much murkier these days, but no other moderators have chosen to ask him about it. Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, wants candidates on both sides to explain whether they support public funding for abortion or the kinds of clinic regulations that conservative states have passed to make it difficult for abortion providers to stay open. “Pro-life Americans would love to know whether candidates support health and safety standards for women who are exposed to great risks in abortion clinics,” said Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for AUL.