The Associated Press
Published on: 11/04/05
WASHINGTON — Former President Carter says the Democratic Party has become too closely associated with abortion rights and has strayed too far from religious people.
Carter, in a C-SPAN2 interview scheduled for broadcast this weekend, also said he would have named the first woman to the Supreme Court if an opening had come up during his presidency. Shirley Hufstedler, then a federal appeals court judge in California, would have been his choice, he said.
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The former Democratic president was interviewed about his new book, "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," which argues for the separation of church and state. The program, "After Words," was scheduled for broadcast Saturday and Sunday.
Carter said, "It's a mistake to wed the Democratic Party to freedom of choice and abortion."
"As I say in this book, I have never believed that Jesus Christ would approve abortions unless the mother's life or health was in danger or perhaps the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, for those very few exceptions," Carter said. "And when I was president I had to live under Roe v. Wade, it was my duty as a president. I did everything I could to minimize the need for abortions."
"I think for the Democratic Party to get identified as being completely pro-choice, with no attention given to the rights of the fetus, is very self-defeating policy," he said. "And I hope we will get away from that. I don't know if it's possible. I hope we will."
A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages left Friday seeking comment.
Another mistake by the party, Carter said, is its detachment from religious people.
"I really believe that our nominees were uncomfortable in dealing with the deeply religious people in our country. I don't mean the right-wing Christians. I think there was a sense among many devout people in my own church, my fellow church members, that John Kerry didn't quite relate to us," he said of last year's Democratic presidential candidate.
"The next successful candidate has got to have some means to say, OK, we believe and we worship the prince of peace, not pre-emptive war, or we're moderate on the abortion issue, or we believe marriage by definition in our church ought to be between a man and a woman, but we believe in full civil rights for gays who want to be partners," he said.
Carter said Hufstedler, now 80, was foremost on his mind if he'd had a court vacancy.
"She was fairly young and since I didn't have an appointment, I made her the first secretary of education," said Carter, a Democrat from Georgia. "And if I had had a Supreme Court appointment, she was the one in my mind that I had in store for that job."
Lyndon Johnson appointed Hufstedler to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 1968. She served for 11 years before Carter nominated her in late 1979 for the top job at the Education Department, which was created the following year.
She returned to private practice in 1981, after Carter's term, and is based in Los Angeles.
Hufstedler was traveling Friday and not immediately available for comment, her office said.
It was President Reagan who in 1981 made the historic decision to nominate the first woman Supreme Court justice — Arizona appeals court judge Sandra Day O'Connor. She took her seat that September.
Last summer, after 24 years of service, O'Connor announced she would retire.
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