A few months ago, I wrote a piece about an attack from Planned Parenthood and Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. The attack was against Ken Cuccinelli, who is currently the state’s Attorney General, who is also running for governor.
The piece focused on the “Keep Ken Out” page, which is still up and running. Planned Parenthood Votes has even spent over $1 million in an attempt to defeat Cuccinelli.
The page even gravely warns that:
Cuccinelli opposes abortion in the case of rape, incest, and the health of the woman, and has done everything he can to throw roadblocks in the way. In fact, the only circumstance in which Cuccinelli supports abortion access is when the life of the woman is at stake.
Terry McAuliffe
McAuliffe while speaking to students at George Mason University, said that he would stop any restrictions on abortions, even late-term abortions. He said that he would be a “brick wall.”
So, does it make much sense to hear from the Virginia Democratic Party that Cuccinelli isn’t so pro-life anymore? It wouldn’t, but that’s the message the party is sending out with robocalls, as reported by The Daily Caller.
As the piece explains, the robocall came after Cuccinelli saying at a forum that he would not fight Medicaid funding of abortions. Medicaid funds the procedure in cases of rape, incest, and to protect life of the mother.
From The Daily Caller:
Cuccinelli called the ad a “lie.”
“Let me be clear: My comments last week were about Medicaid funding for abortions, in which I acknowledged I would abide by current federal law that requires such funding for cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. Right now, this is the law, and is only relevant to the annual question of Medicaid funding,” Cuccinelli said in a statement, noting that his strong pro-life stance has not wavered.
“When something is the law, as in the case with Medicaid funding for abortions, it would be my job as Governor to defend that law regardless of my personal feelings on the subject. That’s something I have done time and again as Attorney General,” Cuccinelli said.
Ken Cuccinelli. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
Cuccinelli has a point, and sometimes it is difficult to be a pro-life politician in a nation with the convoluted abortion laws as ours. But, one still has to follow the law. This does not mean that Cuccinelli would be prevented from being a a governor who sticks true to his values. And we can assume he would sign pro-life legislation for his state.
As Attorney General, Cuccinelli may have his own opinion, but still defends the law. As a pro-life politician and man of public office, he knows where he can use his personal feelings, and where he cannot. The McAuliffe campaign doesn’t seem to think so, however. From The Washington Post:
“Ken Cuccinelli has spent his entire career trying to interfere in Virginians’ private lives,” Josh Schwerin, a McAuliffe spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday. “Virginians can surely expect that as governor, Cuccinelli would abuse his power and attempt to impose his personal extreme ideology on all Virginia families.”
Even if Cuccinelli were to have altered his position on abortion, to have “flip-flopped,” then the “Keep Ken Out” page hasn’t made a move to make that update.
And suppose that Cuccinelli had changed his stance, that in his personal opinion, he supported abortion in the cases of rape and incest, and even the funding of it. This would be a shame, no doubt. Cuccinelli would not be the only politician or pro-lifer with such a stance, though.
It would also still be worthwhile to compare the positions between a pro-abortion Terry McAuliffe and a Ken Cuccinelli supposedly less pro-life than he once claimed to be. McAuliffe has an extremist viewpoint, with support from the equally extremist Planned Parenthood Votes. As governor he would likely carry out such a viewpoint, endangering both women and unborn children.
With his own strong commitment to abortion, McAuliffe and Planned Parenthood have sought to portray Cuccinelli in a light as unflattering as possible. He and the Virginia Democratic Party then go to accuse Cuccinelli of being a flip-flopper. It may be unlikely that McAuliffe cares one way or another about Cuccinelli’s position, and is thus just desperately trying to defame his opponent in ways that are not only juvenile, but malicious.
The voters of Virginia certainly appear to be in the midst of a heated gubernatorial campaign. Hopefully they can see through the guise of deceitful political games to choose the candidate who most suits their conscience.
