John McCain (Consistently?) Against Abortion Rights

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When John McCain made a campaign stop the other day and said “I do not support Roe vs. Wade. It should be overturned,” I thought it was old news. MoJoBlog had already written about how McCain’s new support for criminalizing abortion was at odds with his previous position and that the whole thing was a part of McCain’s attempt to redraw his own image in a more conservative way.

But I want to draw your attention to this post on TAPPED, which makes the case that McCain’s past moderate statements on abortion aside, he’s always been pretty thoroughly a foe of a woman’s right to chose. A snippet:

…it should be pointed out that his record is in fact fundamentally consistent: he’s for it [criminalizing abortion]. He has a 0% NARAL rating. He’s never met a federal abortion regulation he doesn’t like. He voted for Robert Bork, which would have meant Roe being overturned 15 years ago. He favors a constitutional amendment banning abortion. It’s true that he has said that he wouldn’t want his daughter forced by the state to carry a pregnancy to term, but basically all American social conservatism comes with an implicit self-exemption for rich white people, and John McCain’s daughter won’t have a problem obtaining a safe abortion if Roe is overturned.

Fair enough.

Update: I missed this old blog post from Brad Plumer way back in the day. He made all these points a year ago, and added this salient note:

Look: In 2008 this country will elect a new president. Presumably sometime shortly thereafter the 86-year-old John Paul Stevens will retire from the Supreme Court. Replacing Stevens with a pro-life judge would provide the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Do we really think that as president John McCain, a man who voted without hesitation to confirm Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito despite serving in a pro-choice state—and a man who, as president, would be under unimaginable pressure from conservative interest groups and would need to satisfy “the base” to win re-election—would really nominate a pro-choice justice?

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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