Huckabee Accused of Reversal on Life Amendment

ABC News’ Christine Byun and Teddy Davis Report: Former Sen Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who has been criticized by GOP rival Mike Huckabee for opposing a Human Life Amendment, defended his position on Fox News Sunday by arguing that Huckabee once questioned the measure’s practicality and opposed its inclusion in the GOP platform in 1995.

"Governor Huckabee agreed with that position until he started running for President," said Thompson, referring to the view that a Human Life Amendment is impractical.

While painting Huckabee as having reversed his position on the Human Life Amendment for political reasons, Thompson also argued that his critics are over-simplifying the process by which the Constitution can be amended. 

"We sit here talk about the ideal which would be a constitutional amendment, two-thirds of the Congress, three-fourths of the states, and basically, saying that we can get that done," added Thompson, "but we can’t go state by state and win this argument?"

Huckabee has used his positions on a Human Life Amendment and a federal marriage amendment to appeal to social conservatives in Iowa where he has tripled his support since July, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll.

Thompson supports the reversal of Roe v Wade so abortion decisions can return to the states. On same-sex marriage, he opposes a federal amendment which would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Instead, he supports a constitutional amendment which would allow same-sex marriages only if they were approved by voters or legislatures rather than by judges. The amendment Thompson favors would also specify that no state would have to recognize same-sex marriage approved in another state.

Huckabee, by contrast, is running for president as an unabashed proponent of a Human Life Amendment, which would ban abortion nationwide, and a more sweeping marriage amendment which would forbid not only judges but also legislatures and voters from approving same-sex marriage.

On Monday, he launched a television ad in Iowa highlighting his belief that life begins at conception.

To support the criticism of Huckabee which Thompson lobbed on Fox News Sunday, Thompson aide Karen Hanretty e-mailed members of the press a Washington Times newspaper clip from Feb. 12, 1995, in which Huckabee, who was lieutenant governor of Arkansas at the time, is quoted saying "that’s exactly what we have looked for" after a description of a proposed platform revision which would have replaced the Human Life Amendment with "a statement saying the issue should be left up to the individual states legislatures to deal with as each sees fit."

"’That’s exactly what we have looked for, and if it’s left up to the states, more of them are going to put some restrictions on abortion,’ Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee said in an interview after appearing on a conference panel yesterday," reads the Washington Times story from 1995.

Asked by ABC News’ Kevin Chupka on Monday if he favored dropping the federal Human Life Amendment from the GOP platform in 1995, Huckabee did not provide a simple "yes" or "no" answer.

"In ’95-’96 there was a lot of talk in the Republican Party nationally about getting rid of that plank in the platform," said Huckabee, referring to the provision calling for a Human Life Amendment. "I’ve never wanted us to do that but when the discussion came ‘what would be the worst,’ well, the worst would be having nothing pro-life in the platform."

"It’s a matter," Huckabee added, "of getting done whatever you can get done and moving the ball as far as you can move it."