A curious phenomenon has unfolded in the post-Dobbs media landscape. Democrats decided to make abortion their midterm rallying cry after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, making the issue a convenient distraction from Joe Biden and the economy … or so they hoped. The media played along with it all summer long, especially when Republicans began drafting legislation that produced limits on abortion.
Aha!, Democrats cried. The Handmaid’s Tale is upon us!
However, the specifics of those proposals forced the media into an uncomfortable position for Democrats. The media began to ask tough questions about limits, and two Democrat gubernatorial candidates demonstrated over the weekend how extreme their party has become.
First off, let’s look at Katie Hobbs’ version of “choice” in Arizona. Even under Major Garrett’s mild questioning on CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday, Hobbs refused to support any limits on abortion:
Democrat @KatieHobbs just endorsed “due date” abortion on national TV.
Hobbs’ extreme position is abortion on demand up to the moment of birth. #AZGOV pic.twitter.com/C0fAHQ4Coz
— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) October 9, 2022
MAJOR GARRETT: What would the Hobbs administration’s week limit be for abortion access? If it’s not 15 weeks, what is it?
SECRETARY OF STATE KATIE HOBBS: Look, abortion is a very personal decision that belongs between a woman and her doctor.
The government and politicians don’t belong in that decision. We need to let doctors perform the care that they are trained and take an oath to — to perform.
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MAJOR GARRETT: So, if an Arizona voter were to conclude from your previous answer that you do not favor any specific week limit on abortion, would they be correct?
SECRETARY OF STATE KATIE HOBBS: I support leaving the decision between a woman and her doctor and leaving politicians entirely out of it.
This clip misses Hobbs’ claim that GOP candidate Kari Lake was “misconstruing” her view on abortion by claiming that she supports “abortion right up until birth.” And immediately after that, Hobbs refused to set a limit on abortion anywhere other than “right up until birth.” Lake also noted that Hobbs voted against a form of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as well, a point that Garrett doesn’t mention.
At almost the same time, Stacey Abrams tried claiming that the question is invalid because no one can define when pregnancy starts. Huh?
“Were you to become governor, where would you draw the line? 15 weeks? Viability? 36 weeks? What’s the limit?”
STACEY ABRAMS: “The arbitrary standards of timelines ignore the medical reality that it is a fallacy we know exactly when a pregnancy starts.” pic.twitter.com/ZLRzoNCNNd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 9, 2022
Now that Democrats made abortion their main plank in the midterms, they have no way now to hide from their extreme positions. Their campaign promises to “restore Roe,” but Roe and Casey had allowed for limits on legal abortions in states, usually at or near viability. Now that the courts stopped being the arbiter of policy, Democrats have to articulate what their policies will actually be. The answers they give show just how radical Democrats actually are on abortion, and how little they actually represent the mainstream of American thought.
The big surprise here is that the media is actually pinning them down on their favored issue. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; Democrats left them little choice, and Republicans’ efforts to specify their policies stripped away the cover Democrats and the media had.
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