Here's my exchange on "Ralston Live" on Monday evening with presidential candidate Ben Carson on the controversy over his involvement with fetal tissue and his position on abortion, which is no exceptions (video below transcript):
Jon: (reading off still) Carson told Weigel that there really is no conflict between the research he did and his anti-abortion rights views today.
Jon: You don’t think there’s a conflict at all? Really?
Carson: No I don’t. First of all, going back 20-25 years and looking for little stuff I think is ridiculous.
Jon: You think this is little?
Carson: Well let me explain
Jon: OK
Carson: You know, with the ad- i did not want to tell people how to vote and yet at the end of the ad they told people how to vote. I said I don’t want anything to do with it. It’s not that I disagreed with it, so that was completely-
Jon: You didn’t know that going in…that they were going to do that?
Carson: No, I didn’t. I asked that it wouldn’t be done and they did it anyway. at any rate, that takes care of that. Dr Gunter is all wet with her assumptions- completely wet. number one..
Jon: What assumptions?
Carson: She’s wrong. She’s wrong. She says ‘ how can my career go on without fetal tissue research’ and all this…I don’t want to call it a bad name..but…untruth. ok, put it that way. number one, I’ve never touched a fetus. I’ve never engaged in any abortions. what i did is take out tumors., give that tumor to the pathologist and then they compare with tissue specimens. very much like if you were an archaeologist and you found a scroll with some writing on it, you didn’t know what it was, but it looked very intriguing, so you would give it to your people, and then they would take it and they would compare it with all the archives that they have that they they’ve acquired from lots of different places. now you’re still digging. I’m the surgeon- I’m giving them the tissue. I’m not doing anything with any of the tissue at all other than giving it to them.
Jon: You’re parsing though aren’t you?
Carson: Excuse me-
Jon: You touched the fetal tissue right?
Carson: No. No I touched the tumor. They’re talking about me dealing with fetal tissue. I have nothing to do with that. They have archives, just like the archaeologist would have archives from conception to people 120 years old and they utilize those to get information to compare, to determine the etiology of tumors. That’s what’s going on. So to take that and try to say that I’m doing fetal research is an incredible stretch and-
Jon: Do you not believe in fetal research Dr?
Carson: Let me answer that in a minute. But the only reason they’re doing this is to try to justify what these videos have shown. And to say that I’m engaged in the same kind of thing. That is total crap.
Jon: Tell me about fetal tissue research though. Do you think- do you believe in it or not?
Carson: I believe that people do it. I’m not going to engage in it myself.
Jon: But do you not think that it leads and can lead to important discoveries in medicine?
Carson: Let me put it this way- important discoveries in medicine can be carried out using other types of tissue as well. The reason why I’m giving you that answer is because the people who do things other than legitimate research will take that answer and say ‘see, see, this is ok. all this stuff we’re doing is ok.’ that’s the problem.
Jon: I can understand why people are disturbed by those Planned Parenthood videos. I’ve seen them. I understand what a highly charged issue abortion is. Everybody does. But you’re doctor. You’re a scientist. You understand the possible advances that can come from fetal tissue research. I know you do.
Carson: I also understand the damage that can come from abortion on demand. I also understand the emotional trauma that happens to a large number of women who undergo that. And I think we ought to take all of those things into consideration. not just one aspect.
Jon: So abortion- do you believe in the same exceptions that generally people believe in- rape, incest, life of the mother- or are you like Marco Rubio who says essentially there should be no exceptions because if you believe abortion is murder then there should be no exceptions. Where do you come down on that then?
Carson: I believe a human life is precious. Now if a woman gets raped- she can go immediately to the emergency room and as you may or may not know, you know administration of certain drugs can prevent- it can act as contraceptive if done within hours.
Jon: That’s not always going to be possible right? When someone is raped.
Carson: It will generally be possible.
Jon: Do you believe in no exceptions essentially?
Carson: I believe that if that woman wants to get treatment we ought to make that treatment available to her.
Jon: And what about incest or life of the mother?
Carson: Again, with the life of the mother issue. You know we have made enormous advances in that area. As you may or may not be aware, there was a conference of obstetricians in 2012, and they essentially said that that doesn’t occur anymore. So I’m not sure that that’s legitimate argument.
Here's my exchange on "Ralston Live" on Monday evening with presidential candidate Ben Carson on the controversy over his involvement with fetal tissue and his position on abortion, which is no exceptions (video below transcript):
Jon: (reading off still) Carson told Weigel that there really is no conflict between the research he did and his anti-abortion rights views today.
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