McCain Backs Down: Decides to Flip Flop on Abortion

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 6:34 AM on August 21, 2008.

I doubt even most conservatives think that a woman's life should be sacrificed in favor of a fetus, much less normal people.

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ABC News' Teddy Davis and Rigel Anderson Report: John McCain's campaign signaled on Wednesday that the Arizona senator is backing away from his previously stated goal of changing the GOP’s platform on abortion.

"There's a process in place for the delegates to work on the platform and we are going to let that process work itself out," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told ABC News.

McCain’s plan to take a hands-off approach with the abortion platform stands in stark contrast with the position he took during his first presidential run.

Back in 2000, McCain clashed with then-Gov. George W. Bush over his unwillingness to change platform language that called for a human life amendment banning all abortions.

McCain implored Bush to join him in wanting to add exceptions for rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother.

[...]

During an April 14, 2007 media availability which followed the Iowa GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines, McCain reaffirmed his support for changing the platform.

But now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee, the McCain camp is making it clear that he has no plans to push for changes to the platform.

They won't even allow abortion if the woman's life is in danger? Yep. And they consider it so fundamental that if McCain changes it, he will be committing political suicide:

McCain's decision to leave the platform untouched follows a warning from a prominent social conservative.

"If he were to change the party platform," to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother's life, "I think that would be political suicide," Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, told ABC News in May. "I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble."

Welcome to the Dark Ages. May I offer you some mead?

I doubt even most conservatives think that a woman's life should be sacrificed in favor of a fetus, much less normal people. Someone should tell them. McCain, GOP

Tagged as: abortion, gop, mccain

Digby is the proprietor of Hullabaloo.

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Republican Friend from High School [Report this comment] Posted by: Xynyx on Aug 21, 2008 7:01 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I have a friend who, for much of his life, as far as I am aware, has considered himself Republican or independent with Republican leanings. Back when Ronnie Raygun was President, he was pretty firmly in the Republican camp, having fallen for the whole trickle-down economics BS and the entire smaller-and-less-intrusive government shtick. At that age, I was somehow able to see where the GOP was headed... maybe it was obvious, I don't really remember... it seemed obvious to me. I warned my friend that the GOP was leading us down the path toward Theocracy and Fascism. He thought I was just being alarmist... and probably "a nay-sayer", as Reagan liked to call liberal Democrats at the time. And look at where we are now. Does he speak of this at all? No... not really. He's pretty apolitical, generally speaking, and he's doing very well, leading a pretty comfortable life. He definitely worked hard for it... he's not one of those silver-spoon types. But I know he thinks this country has taken a wrong turn. All I'm saying is that I told him when I saw the GOP signaling for that turn, and I don't expect him to acknowledge it. One of the things that has irritated me the most in all of this time has been the degree to which the GOP has shown absolute disdain for the rights of women. Some of them claim to support women's rights to succeed in business, but they're highly unlikely to actually try to work towards that goal. But should a woman get pregnant at any age, she becomes a brood-mare with no capacity to decide her own destiny. This fundamental lack of respect, even disgust, for women, is absolutely intolerable, and no amount of blathering about small government and lower taxes can make up for it. What about less-intrusive government? Wasn't that one of those principles? Oh... I get it... that only applies to businesses... almost invariably run by men. I want an apology... not just from him... but from all the people with whom I've had such political discussions over the decades. Their stupidity (or apathy) is what has brought us here. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » the GOPers Posted by: goatini » RE: Republican Friend from High School Posted by: munchkinpup » RE: epublican Friend from High School Posted by: thealltheone McCain [Report this comment] Posted by: Wacre on Aug 21, 2008 7:10 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] will do or say just about anything to win the Presidency, it appears. No lie is too great, no distortion too bizarre, to deflect from the quest for the Holy Grail of the Presidency of the United States. It appears to be the way he lives his life. Tired of his wife, just get a new one; as if she were a worn and tattered pair of shoes. And the nature of his politics, if his shifting and triangulating are any indicator. Which is by no means to say that Obama is perfect, though McCain wants it way too badly to be trusted. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] It would be much easier... [Report this comment] Posted by: Quannah on Aug 21, 2008 12:20 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] to list the things McStain hasn't flip-flopped on than to list the things he has! The list is getting too long to remember! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: luzmejor » RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: Quannah » RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: JSquercia Is This The Flip or the Flop? [Report this comment] Posted by: FoonTheElder on Aug 21, 2008 2:24 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Wait, is this the flip or the flop, or the flip back again? On the other hand it could be a flip flop and a half. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Pass on the mead, thanks .. trying to cut down here [Report this comment] Posted by: TheLimit on Aug 22, 2008 6:01 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] But so far as abortion is concerned, in the middle ages there was always the village wise woman, and in any case, no one pretended that women were anything other than chattel. The contemporary pretense that women are somehow different these days is one of those sad jokes that leave you wondering whether to laugh or to cry. Women were 'liberated' at the end of the 60's, when the production of birth control pills coincided with the big GOP push to get rid of all things liberal once and for all. Corporate industry wanted cheap labor, and presto! Women were liberated ... if you call what we have liberation. Apart from gaining access to a few professions which were closed to them, and for which they are still paid 70¢ on the male worker's dollar, the position of women can hardly be called improved. They now have the privilege of raising their children single handed far more often, though rarely in the personal sense - instead they have to consign them to warehouses more often than not, though single mothers don't have a monopoly on that choice, so called. They are often privileged, while working outside the home fulltime and supervising those children, to look after the family's infirm and disabled elders, too. And though there is probably no profession which is closed to women today, most women are still employed in traditional pink collar jobs, which pay even less now than they did thirty years ago. I'd say women in the middle ages had it better. They frequently were called upon to run the family affairs and businesses while their men were off in the Middle East crusading .. gosh, deja vu anyone? And if the worst happened and they needed to opt out of a pregnancy, well, they didn't have a male medical heirarchy back then, what they had was midwives and wise women, and no one to say them nay. Not that I'd want to go back to carrying water from the village well, but lets not kid ourselves about our liberation status, eh? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Every sperm is sacred [Report this comment] Posted by: zipper696 on Aug 26, 2008 1:33 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Quote: "...Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council.....[said].."I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters..." Critical issue? Normal human beings living in the USA right now have issues from this list (in no particular order): The Economy The Housing mortgage crisis Health Care Education Drugs and Crime The War in Iraq/Afghanistan FEMA failures Increased government surveillance It seems the Funkymentalists have a much shorter list: Abortion (ban it) Homosexuality (ban it) Gay Marriage (ban it) pre-marital sex (ban it) sex education (Abstinence only) Evolution education (ban it) There seems to be an underlying pattern of fear and self loathing with an unhealthy dose of misogynistic sexism added. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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» the GOPers Posted by: goatini

» RE: Republican Friend from High School Posted by: munchkinpup

» RE: epublican Friend from High School Posted by: thealltheone

» RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: luzmejor

» RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: Quannah

» RE: It would be much easier... Posted by: JSquercia

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