Matt Ortega

While campaigning in South Carolina, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) spoke out against abortion — for rape victims.

“Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been raped? We need to protect innocent life. Period.”

Sam Brownback — making South Dakota look like “dirty fucking hippies” on abortion.

(Hat tip: Jessica Valenti, Feministing)

Updated below

Oliver Willis provided a link to yet another Mitt Romney debate video, this one from 2002, where he vehemently defended his pro-choice stance. Also, Willis points to a Boston Globe article from June 2005 where Romney adviser Michael Murphy told the conservative National Review that he “faked” his pro-choice position.

Four days ago, ABC’s Political Radar posted the explanation the former governor gave to George Stephanopoulos for Sunday morning’s edition of This Week on his vote for Senator Paul Tsongas in 1992.

ABC News’ Jonathan Greenberger Reports: Republican presidential candididate Mitt Romney offered a new explanation today for why he supported a Democrat in 1992.

That year, Romney, then a registered independent, voted for former Sen. Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary. He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in an interview that will air Sunday on “This Week,” that his vote was meant as a tactical maneuver aimed at finding the weakest opponent for incumbent President George H.W. Bush. [emphasis added]

Mitt Romney, the James Bond of political maneuvering. Woodrow Eisenhower of race42008.com disputes the claim that Tsongas was the weakest opponent in the field. As Matt Mackowiak noted, Romney gave a different reason to the Boston Globe in 1992.

Read more »

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), in an attempt to curry support from social conservatives, did a 180 degree flip on the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortions in the United States, Roe v. Wade.

McCain on Roe v. Wade, Associated Press, 2/18/07:

“I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states. [emphasis added]

McCain on Roe v. Wade, Washington Post, 8/24/99:

“I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary,” McCain told the Chronicle in an article published Friday.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

The John McCain Presidential Pander Parade continues.

Updated 2/19/07, 12:22am [by Matt Ortega]: The General “likes candidates that are flexible.”

Some people just never give up.

Three months after South Dakota voters rejected an abortion ban at the polls by a 56-44 margin, state legislators have introduced another “sweeping abortion bill…that supporters hope will lead to a legal challenge of Roe v. Wade.”

The ban rejected in November was “extreme, allowing for abortion only in instances to prevent the death of a woman. The revised ban, titled the ‘Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act,’ offers additional exceptions, though they are very narrowly defined.”

Questions are beginning to arise about Senator Sam Brownback’s cornerstone issue: abortion.

According to the Kansas Republican Party Chairman Tim Schallenburger, Brownback has not always been pro-life.

During a Thursday teleconference, Brownback said that always had been his position.

Not true, say some in Kansas who have a different recollection of Brownback’s rise through the state Republican Party ranks.

Kansas Republican Party Chairman Tim Shallenburger said he remembered having a conversation with Brownback in 1994 when Brownback was running in the GOP primary for the U.S. House.

After the conversation, Shallenburger said he left with the impression that Brownback “was not pro-life.”

David Gittrich, development director for the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, Kansans for Life, said when Brownback first ran for Congress in 1994 “he was ill-informed.”

Gittrich added, “He didn’t know whether he was pro-life or pro-choice.” [emphasis added]

The Kansas senator says that the characterization of him from thirteen years ago is “not true.”

He said in that 1994 race he probably failed to get his views across because instead of stating that he was “pro-life,” he would tell audiences where he stood on various abortion-related bills before Congress.

Asked why he did that, Brownback said he thought it was more appropriate to address specific legislation. He conceded it probably was a “poor choice of words at the time. I’ve learned that lesson.”

On Monday, Brownback, along with fellow GOP candidate, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine, Calif.), vowed to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade.

Questions about Brownback’s pro-life position is not nearly as damaging as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, however, abortion is the Kansas senator’s key issue that will attact social conservatives. It is an important foundation to work with when Brownback stands opposite of the GOP base on Iraq and immigration.