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In Charlotte, Bernie Sanders Blasts New Alabama Abortion Law

Steve Harrison/WFAE
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke in Charlotte Friday evening.

Bernie Sanders' stump speech at Central Piedmont Community College Friday evening touched on familiar themes of his campaign: Income inequality. Medicare For All. Getting corporate money out of politics.

But he spent much of his speech in current events, including the recent passage of new restrictive abortion laws.

"Right now there is a well-funded attack, coordinated by right-wing extremists to deny women the rightr to control their own bodies an their own futures," Sanders said before a crowd of more than 500 people.

Sanders focused on Alamaba's new law, which bans almost all abortions.

"Just this week, as you know, Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion law in the country, outlawing all, even if a woman was raped or a 13-year-old girl was the victim of incest," he said.

So far, there are more than 20 Democrats running for president, and Sanders is polling in second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden.

Sanders did not criticize any Democratic opponents by name. But he did highlight his opposition to the Iraq War, which Biden supported as a U.S. senator.

In recent days, tension between the U.S. and Iran has increased. The U.S. has said American troops in Iraq are at increased risk from Iran - a claim disputed by some American allies.

Sanders said war with Iran would be far worse than the Iraq War.

"We have to be very concerned about the growing discussions in the Trump administration about the possibility, the insane possibility, of a U.S. attack on Iran. And the state of another. I don't know how many wars these people want," he said.

For Democrats, South Carolina on Feb. 29th will be the fourth primary or caucus in 2020.

North Carolina's 2020 primary has been moved up, and the state will vote with 13 others on March 3.

 
 
 
 

 
 

Steve Harrison is WFAE's politics and government reporter. Prior to joining WFAE, Steve worked at the Charlotte Observer, where he started on the business desk, then covered politics extensively as the Observer’s lead city government reporter. Steve also spent 10 years with the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.