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Your support makes all the difference.The Liberal Democrats have denied claims that their party leader is opposed to abortion after an old interview emerged in which he said the medical procedure was “too widely available”.
Tim Farron, who is a practising Christian, spoke to a Salvation Army publication in 2007 in which he said the medical procedure was “wrong”.
“Take the issue of abortion. Personally I wish I could argue it away. Abortion is wrong,” he told the publication, unearthed by the Guardian newspaper.
In the interview Mr Farron went on to say that abortion was “wrong at any time” and that it was “too widely available” and needed “tighter restrictions”.
Asked about the comments on Twitter he said the publication was “not a publication I’ve ever heard of or read or seen”.
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said Mr Farron had actually always been pro-choice and would not discuss the interview in question.
“Tim’s view is that he is pro-choice and abortion should be safe and legal, that is what he believes,” the spokesperson said.
However Mr Farron’s Lib Dem colleague Ed Davey took a different line, claiming that his party leader had changed his mind.
“Tim has made very clear he has changed his mind,” Sir Ed told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“He's made it clear that he is pro-choice and the Liberal Democrats believe that women should have the right to choose.”
The row over abortion comes after Mr Farron’s views on gay rights came under scrutiny.
The Lib Dem leader repeatedly refused to answer whether he believed gay sex was a sin, then later said he did not believe it was.
Polls suggest the Liberal Democrats have struggled to make significant in-roads with their national vote share during the election campaign, confounding some expectations of a comeback.
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