Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.

That is why I fought against abortion and that is why if I were still in the Senate I would be doing everything I could to defend the sanctity of marriage.

If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion gay marriage stem cell research all of those things you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.

On behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America - and our one million member activists - I am honored to be here to talk to you about what's at stake for women in 2012. I am proud to say that the Democratic Party believes that women have the right to choose a safe legal abortion with dignity and privacy.

Even those who like me believe that Roe v. Wade and the decisions elaborating on reproductive rights were constitutionally correct must recognize that for many on the right the sudden and relatively sloppily reasoned character of the abortion rulings... did real damage to the Court's reputation as a relatively neutral arbiter of legal disputes.

Legal abortion will never rest easy on this nation's conscience.

I do not believe abortion should be legal.

Decades ago women suffered through horrifying back-alley abortions. Or they used dangerous methods when they had no other recourse. So when the Republican Party launched an all-out assault on women's health pushing bills to limit access to vital services we had to ask: Why is the GOP trying to send women back... to the back alley?

Contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and children preventing unintended pregnancy and reducing the need for abortion.

The idea of making access to safe abortions harder and more expensive and more difficult having to travel across state lines - that puts women's health and lives in jeopardy which is something I think no one wants.