Interview With Patrick J. Buchanan

BALTIMORE, Oct. 10 (CNS) -- Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan said he would take several steps to reverse abortion laws in the United States, from appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, to reversing President Clinton's executive orders on abortion to urging Congress to vote on a human life amendment.

Buchanan also said that, despite Pope John Paul II's recent opposition, he is in favor of capital punishment in cases "where the crimes are heinous and it is the only justifying penalty," and when the judge is certain of the defendant's guilt.

In a wide-ranging, 35-minute interview with Catholic News Service, conducted Oct. 6 as Buchanan headed for Washington after an TV news appearance in Baltimore, the Catholic candidate also talked about his view on limiting immigration, his support for school choice, his opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, why he disputes the notion of a Catholic vote, and his belief that the United Nations should be moved to a neutral country, like Switzerland.

On abortion, Buchanan said the most important thing the president of the United States could do "is to alter the character of the Supreme Court and reconvert it into a pro-life constitutionalist court which respects America's religious heritage and tradition and respects the Constitution as originally written."

Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, "was an abomination, not only from the moral standpoint but a constitutional standpoint," he said. "So I would appoint only pro-life justices who had the courage to overturn (it)."

He said he would reverse five executive orders Clinton signed in the first days of his presidency that, according to Buchanan, "virtually made abortion on demand the policy of the federal government."

He was referring to Clinton's executive orders issued on Jan. 22, 1993, the 21st anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, that reversed a number of federal regulations, such as prohibitions on abortion counseling in federally funded family planning clinics and restrictions on access to abortion in U.S. military hospitals overseas.

Buchanan said he would cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, the U.N. population council and fetal tissue research, would push federal legislation to outlaw RU-486 or give the states the freedom to do so, and would outlaw abortions at all military hospitals.

"You can use the office of the presidency to advance the whole cause of life and the culture of life," he said. He would also ask Congress to vote on a human life amendment.

Regarding capital punishment, Buchanan said he believes it is "a states' rights issue." He supports "the use of capital punishment in certain circumstances where the crimes are heinous and where I believe that it is the only justifying penalty."

"I always have held that, though I do believe that any judge ought to have in his own mind absolute certitude that the individual is guilty of these crimes before he imposes the death sentence," he added.

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