John McCain’s position on abortion hasn’t always been especially consistent, and by all appearances, he doesn’t even like to talk about it on the campaign stump.
It’s what made this development yesterday rather interesting.
[B]arnstorming today through three conservative Southern states that will hold primaries on Tuesday, McCain is touching on abortion.
And I do mean touching on.
“For 24 years, I’ve fought for the rights of the unborn,” McCain said mid-speech at a jam-packed rally in Birmingham this afternoon, noting that pro-lifers could count on him.
Then, intentionally but revealingly, he quickly pivoted to the war and threat of Islamic terrorism by saying, “Let me talk to you just for a minute about why I’m running for president.”
In other words, fighting for the “rights of the unborn” is clearly not why he’s running for president.
That’s hardly a surprise, given his record on the issue.
Despite consistently opposing abortion rights in Congress, during his last presidential campaign, for example, when McCain was trying to reinvent himself (again) as a moderate reformer, he angered much of the Republican base by offering a tacit defense of Roe v. Wade.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appeared to soften his position on making abortion illegal in separate interviews in recent days, drawing criticism from social conservatives and some of his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination.
Aides to McCain said perhaps he could have been clearer in comments he made to the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, but that he had not wavered from his long-term opposition to abortion or his belief that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, should be repealed.
“I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary,” McCain told the Chronicle in an article published Friday. “But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.”
McCain eventually moved away from his stated opinion, and now likes to pretend he never said it (this happens a lot with him).
I’m reminded of an incident from the summer of 2006, when McCain appeared at an Aspen Institute discussion. It was rather embarrassing when the senator tripped over himself trying to explain his position on science in science classes, saying intelligent design creationism does and does not belong in public schools. A former McCain aide acknowledged at the time, “[H]is heart isn’t in this stuff…. But he has to pretend [that it is], and he’s not a good enough actor to pull it off. He just can’t fake it well enough.”
McCain is awfully lucky to be running in a crowded Republican primary, in which conservatives are split among his rivals.