Hot Air has the text of a questionnaire Fred Thompson filled out on abortion back in the 1990’s.  In it, Thompson is pretty clearly pro-choice saying he doesn’t believe the government should be meddling in a private affair such as that.  Which raises some pretty serious doubts about Thompson’s pro-life stance now.

So how should a pro-life voter such as myself feel about this?  Personally, I’m not all that worried for a couple of reasons.

First, Thompson is a staunch federalist.  He believes in state and local control over the majority of political issues, including sticky social issues like abortion and gay marriage.  So, essentially, he feels that the states should be allowed to determine the abortion situation for themselves.  Which means that he’d support overturning Roe vs. Wade.  So even if Thompson feels abortion should be legal personally, what more can a pro-life person ask for in a politician than someone who is willing to let the voters of each state decide that issue?

Now I feel that abortion is unconstitutional, as the 5th amendment requires due process of law before anyone’s life is ended, but Thompson’s federalism is a step in the right direction.

Second, consider the practical powers Thompson as President would actually have over abortion.  He would not be a legislator.  He couldn’t introduce new anti-abortion laws.  His most important contribution to the abortion debate would be to appoint judges to the federal bench who share his philosophy on federalism.  And if those judges share his philosophy on federalism it would lead that they also feel that Roe vs. Wade was a bad decision and would seek to return abortion to state control.

With the next President likely to get an opportunity to make several appointments to the federal bench (and probably at least a couple to the Supreme Court) where the abortion is likely to be settled (if it ever can be settled), Thompson’s judicial philosophy is important.  And federalism is exactly what we need at this point.

So yeah, Thompson may or may not be pro-choice.  But he is a staunch federalist, and that’s what we need in the White House.