'John McSame': Meet Bush's Anti-Choice Clone

With detractors like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rick Santorum, Tom Delay and James Dobson, most thinking people might conclude that John McCain comes highly recommended. But just because John McCain is an enemy of some of our most cartoonish villians does not make him a friend. This is most true on reproductive health issues.

Pro-choice Americans haven't yet pegged McCain as the extreme anti-choice copy of George W. Bush he is. For close watchers of pro-choice politics though, he's John McSame.

In fact, the Straight Talk Express has skidded off the road that most Americans drive. He is more extreme than even some who consider themselves "pro-life." For example, most Americans would be stunned to learn McCain won't -- or can't -- say whether he even supports the right to use contraception. Last March, according to the New York Times, McCain fumbled through this exchange about contraception with a reporter aboard his campaign bus;

"Reporter: "Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?"

Mr. McCain:

"Well I think it's a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes -- and I was just reading the thing he wrote -- that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn't succeed, then he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I'm not very wise on it."

(Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)

Mr. McCain: "I haven't thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don't know if I would use taxpayers' money for it [contraception]."

Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush's policy, which is just abstinence?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president's policy."

Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."

Q: "I mean, I think you'd probably agree it probably does help stop it?"

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I'm not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I'm sure I've taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception -- I'm sure I'm opposed to government spending on it, I'm sure I support the president's policies on it."

Q: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: 'No, we're not going to distribute them,' knowing that?"

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) "Get me Coburn's thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn's paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I've never gotten into these issues before."

The Coburn that McCain has chosen as his mentor on all things reproductive is Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, which is like having the Taliban head up the Office for Women's Initiatives. (Think that's an extreme comparison? Keep in mind Coburn wants the death penalty for abortion providers.)

One story about McCain mentor Coburn is particularly telling. Coburn, in recent years, led a sneaky offensive against the condom. In 1999, Coburn drafted legislation mandating that condom labels state that they cannot prevent the transmission of HPV. In 2000, at Coburn's request, the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, USAID and the CDC (the agencies responsible for condom research, condom regulation, condom-use recommendations, and HIV/AIDS and STD prevention) hosted a meeting of experts to compile and examine 138 peer-reviewed papers on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing transmission of STDs. In its report, the panel explained the difficulty in making definitive conclusions based on available studies. For one thing, there exist ethical boundaries that prevent ideal studies from being conducted. Researchers cannot ask study subjects to go have sex without a condom and come back and see what they caught. They also cannot ask those with treatable diseases, like HPV, to remain untreated, have sex with others using a condom, and see how likely transmission was.