This is Senator Joseph Lieberman on Larry King Live on August 8, 2000:

J. LIEBERMAN: Yes, I have — I did not vote to prohibit that procedure, because as horrific as the description of it is, the law of the land clearly is that you cannot ban any procedure at all stages of a pregnancy. In other words, the Supreme Court has said and I think the moral consensus in our society is that up until the point of viability the decision about terminating a pregnancy, no matter what we think personally, has to be between a woman, her doctor, and her own moral standards and God. KING: No matter what? J. LIEBERMAN: Yes, no matter what. So the problem with the partial birth abortion was that it banned that one procedure at every stage of pregnancy. Some of us put in an alternative amendment that said, OK, let’s not only ban it, let’s ban every other form of abortion post-viability unless the life or the serious health damage to the mother was in danger. KING: That got turned down? J. LIEBERMAN: And that got turned down. And it’s too bad, because I think that’s the kind of common ground approach that could actually pass the Senate. KING: Wouldn’t most Orthodox Jews be pro-life? J. LIEBERMAN: It’s much more varied. A lot of times people say that, but Jewish law generally on this says that what begins at conception is potential life. And frankly, depending on which rabbi you talk to, some say that the fetus at viability, when it can at least theoretically sustain itself on its own, outside the body of the mother, that’s when life begins. Many other rabbis say that it begins at birth. So it’s a matter of personal judgment. And like everything else in Judaism, ultimately, it’s up to each of us to decide what we think is right.