Carly Fiorina: Texas abortion law 'not particularly extreme'

Former Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina says that an abortion law that is expected to close all but five of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas is "not a particularly extreme" position.

During a Sunday panel discussion about how to attract more voters to the Republican Party, ABC News host George Stephanopolous asked Fiorina how the party could solve its demographic challenges and turn around Mitt Romney's loss of single women by almost 50 points.

"We have to turn it around by having reasonable discussions around the things that are labeled extreme," the former Hewlett-Packard CEO explained. "First of all, not everyone in the Republican Party is pro-life. I happen to be pro-life, but there are many pro-choice Republicans."

"But, example: When Gov. [Rick] Perry pushed forward legislation in Texas to ban abortion after 20 weeks, it was labeled as an extreme move," Fiorina pointed out. "That's five months. Five months. There are only four counties in the world that have -- that legalize abortion after five months: China, North Korea, Canada and the U.S. That's actually not a particularly extreme position to say a woman needs to have a choice up to five months, and then there really has to be a medical reason."

She added: "But it gets cast as a very extreme point. I would be willing to wager there are many, many single women who are pro-choice, who say, 'You know what? Five months sounds reasonable to me.' So, I think part of the Republican Party's challenge is to not fall into the trap of having issues cast the way our political opponents want them cast, and be willing and courageous enough to actually have the debate on our terms."

Whole Woman’s Health CEO Amy Hagsrom Miller told KUT News last month that the Texas law's requirement that every abortion clinic in the state conform to ambulatory surgical center (ASC) standards would likely reduce the number of clinics from 42 to 5.

And The Austin Chronicle's Jordan Smith concluded that the law amounted to "suppression by regulation."

"The likely net effect of the new requirement that all providers become ASCs will be that the state's 36 licensed abortion clinics will close, leaving open (at most) six ASCs providing abortion care, and leaving most women without any effective access to services," Smith wrote.

Watch this video from ABC's This Week, broadcast Aug. 18, 2013.