Say Anything Blog

Because this is one of the most ridiculous instances of political posturing/straddling I’ve ever seen.

WASHINGTON (CNN)—Would it be a good day for America if Roe v. Wade were repealed? “Yes,” Absolutely,” “Most certainly”—these are the type of emphatic answers given by 9 out of 10 of the GOP presidential candidates.

But when it came time for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to answer, he said, “It would be okay to repeal,” then adding, “It would be okay also if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as a precedent.”

This is a decision for the Supreme Court to decide, he explained, and “Then the country can deal with it. We’re a federalist system of government and states can make their own decisions.”

Now I’m not the sort of person who buys into the argument that abortion is a state’s right.  I see life as beginning at conception, so to me the unborn child is protected by the 5th amendment which requires due process before anyone is deprived of their life.  Meaning that no state can pass a law making abortion legally if we’re going by what the founders actually wrote in the Constitution.

But if you’re someone like Giuliani who doesn’t believe that life begins at conception and also claim to be a “federalist” when it comes to the Constitution then the state’s rights option is your obvious choice.  After all, no article or section of, nor any amendment to, the Constitution was meant to protect abortion as a right.  Thus, per the 10th amendment, it is an issue to be left to the states.  But Giuliani is saying that he’s a federalist, but that he could see how Roe should stand.

That’s utter nonsense.

Giuliani would be better served if he just took one side or the other with this abortion thing.  Trying to please both sides just makes him silly.  And, frankly, he’s not going to win over many of the pro-choice crowd anyway.  He may as well just embrace his pro-choice stance and hope that socially conservative voters are able to look past it to his other more palatable policies.