McCain Declares War on Roe v. Wade

John McCain yesterday stated in South Carolina that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, stating point blank “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.” In another article, he is quoted as telling reporters, “I don’t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should — could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support.”

Now, this confused me, since I remembered differently from 1999. Sure enough a quick Google search turned up what McCain said in 1999:

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to abortion or his belief that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, should be repealed.

“I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary,” McCain told the Chronicle in an article published Friday.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.”

On Sunday, on CNN’s “Late Edition,” McCain reiterated that he would not have an abortion “litmus” test for a running mate or Supreme Court nominees. He added that while he ultimately favors repeal of Roe, “we all know, and it’s obvious, that if we repeal Roe v. Wade tomorrow, thousands of young American women would be performing illegal and dangerous operations.”

McCain has a long antiabortion record in his 17-year congressional career. He has said he opposes abortion with the exceptions of rape, incest and to prevent a woman’s death. In a National Right to Life Committee questionnaire last year, he answered “yes” when asked if he supported the complete reversal of Roe v. Wade. He also voted to override President Clinton’s veto of the ban on a late-term procedure called “partial birth” abortion by its opponents and in favor of continuing the ban on Medicaid funding for abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the woman.

Has any of this changed? It’s unclear. McCain seemed to have found a real problem with immediately making abortions illegal, but it was subtle enough that it completely angered the base. This time around, McCain is skipping right over that distinction. He’ll eventually have to answer for that, whether its on Meet the Press or some other Sunday talk show. It’s simply too obvious. I imagine his explanation is that government also needs to work to prevent the blakc market abortions. He’ll probably also go thick on the abortion rhetoric that’s meant to appeal to the base.

The ironic part is that McCain’s vote to publicly fund embryonic stem cell research is still alienatiing him from the anti-abortion/pro-life advocates, as this ‘LifeNews’ article indicates:

However, McCain voted last year in favor of a bill forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research and he upset pro-life groups by sponsoring a major campaign finance reform bill that contained several restrictions on what they could do during elections.

So if this is just political calculation on his part (and given his prior statements, it’s impossible for me to believe otherwise), McCain may be futily courting the right at the expense of the left that had supported him. Which seems to be a pattern in his campaign.

Other McCain News: