From our friends at Wegner's:
Connecticut Dave McCormick finally speaks out about his latest position on abortion. All lies with no pushback from these hacks at DVJ. They actually push him harder on his Diet Coke intake. Of course. pic.twitter.com/R34z6PUTea
— Wegner’s Groceries (@grocerieswegner) May 3, 2024
Transcript:
Of course you don't have much to run on, so they're certainly going to run on a very negative message on abortion.
And my view on this is, listen, I think this is a states' rights issue. I believe this should be decided by the people of Pennsylvania. The people of Pennsylvania have decided. We have a legislation that's supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. Signed into law by a guy named Casey. Then-governor Casey, Bob Casey Jr's father.And I'm someone who doesn't support bans. I don't support federal legislation. I believe we can find common ground around widely available contraception and around support for adoption services and I believe we should have restrictions on late-term abortions and that the Democratic Party and Bob Casey's got to step on this. Listen, Bob Casey - no senator has moved more on abortion than Bob Casey. He's pro-life Senator and then in 2018 he flipped to being pro-choice and then most recently he signed legislation that would have allowed abortions up until the due date.
So I think what I'll be able to do is to stand on the debate stage and say, "Senator, listen I stand with Pennsylvanians and the law they put in place. I stand with your father and you, sir, are the extremist.
And that's true.
Except that it's McCormick who's the extremist.
But let's start at the end and work our way up. Nutmegger Dave says he "stand(s) with the people of Pennsylvania" on the issue.
So where do Pennsylvanians stand on choice?
- 51% - Legal in all/most cases.
- 44% - Illegal in all/most cases.
So he stands with (let's face it) the slight majority that believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, right?
However, when we dig into what McCormick's actual limits are, we see a flip-flop:
When asked directly at a candidate forum in April 2022 — two months before the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision — whether he supported exceptions for abortion, McCormick answered, “I believe in the very rare instances there should be exceptions for the life of the mother.” On his campaign website at the time, he wrote that he is “staunchly pro-life and believes that life begins at conception.”
Following that candidate forum, it was widely reported by national and local media outlets that McCormick supported only exceptions for the life of the mother in “very rare instances.”
Now running for Pennsylvania’s other Senate seat, McCormick says he supports exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and health of the mother.
And there's some journalistic back up for this as well. From Business Insider:
As Dave McCormick mounts a second campaign for the GOP nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania, he has removed an old "Issues" page from his website that touted his "staunchly pro-life" bona fides.
"Dave is staunchly pro-life and believes that life begins at conception," read the old "Issues" pages, according to the Internet Archive. "Dave has attended the March for Life rally in Washington, DC and will continue to advocate for the rights of the unborn."
While this may seem like a distinction without a difference, once you fully grok the phrase "life begins at conception" you'll see that it's completely at odds with any "exception" - rape, incest or life of the mother included.
In an opinion piece in the Seattle Times titled "Either all life begins at conception, or it doesn’t. Simple, right?" has a good explanation as to why:
In the current Congress, a Life at Conception Act has 125 Republican sponsors in the House, including Speaker Mike Johnson and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane. Its stated goal is “To implement equal protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person” and defines the term “human person” to include “each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
There’s no wiggle room there, folks. No exceptions for rape, incest, health of the mother...
There it is. Dave is looking to have it both ways; declare on the record his "acceptance" of exceptions and still have the forced-birthers (whose votes he's courting) believe he's one of them: one who believes that life begins from the moment the head of daddy’s little wiggler fused with the wall of mummy’s little bubble - end of story.
Can't have it both ways. The flip-flop is seen in his attempt.
One last point. When McCormick misleads on Casey's support of abortion rights.
The Pennsylvania Capital Star has an explanation:
“Bob Casey has repeatedly voted to allow abortion up until the moment of birth, an extreme position that is totally out of touch with the people of Pennsylvania,” a McCormick spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Capital-Star.
The comment appears to be in reference to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which many Republicans have interpreted as allowing abortions late in pregnancy. Democrats have argued that’s not the intent of the legislation, which would provide a federal right to abortion care, and stop state bans and restrictions on abortion.
The text of the bill states that abortion cannot be prohibited “at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability.” It also states abortion can’t be prohibited “after fetal viability when, in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
So, a lie.