In a speech at private Christian college Liberty University on Monday, Democratic candidate for president Sen. Bernie Sanders said that the Republican Party’s budget priorities demonstrate that while they say they want to protect unborn children, they take money away from mothers and children and give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

He was responding to a question from a Liberty student who said, “Sen. Sanders, you have talked in your campaign about how it is immoral to protect the billionaire class at the expense of the most vulnerable in society — children. A majority of Christians would agree with you, but would also go further and say that children in the womb need our protection even more. How do you reconcile the two in your mind?”

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“I understand that,” Sanders said, “but I do also understand this is an area where we disagree. I do understand and I do believe that it is improper for the United States government or for state government to tell every woman in this country the very painful and difficult choice that she has to make on that issue.”

“And I honestly don’t want to be too provocative here, but very often conservatives say, ‘Well, you know, get the government out of my life!'” he went on. “I don’t want the government telling me what to do.”

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“But on this very sensitive issue on which this nation is divided,” Sanders said, “but my view is I respect absolutely a family that says, ‘No, we are not going to have an abortion,’ I understand that, I respect that. But I would hope that other people will respect the very painful and difficult choice that many women feel they have to make and don’t want the government telling them what to do.”

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“But, I want to take that question a step further,” he said. “Here is where I hope we have common ground.”

Saying that thus far, he has tried to be nonpartisan in his remarks, Sanders went on to say, “I want to tell you what was in the Republican budget that passed some months ago.”

“When you talk about issues of children, understand the Republican budget threw 27 million people off of health care, including many children, at a time when many families cannot afford to send their kids to college,” he said.

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“At a time when children in America are going hungry, the Republican budget cut billions of dollars in nutrition programs, including money for the WIC program, which goes to low income pregnant women and their babies. And to add insult to injury in that budget, the Republicans provided over $250 billion over a 10-year period in tax breaks to the top two tenths of one percent,” Sanders said.

“I don’t think that is a moral budget,” he concluded.

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