{"id":274,"date":"2008-09-12T14:14:02","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T14:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/did-mccain-backtrack-on-aborti.html"},"modified":"2008-09-12T14:14:02","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T14:14:02","slug":"did-mccain-backtrack-on-aborti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/did-mccain-backtrack-on-aborti.html","title":{"rendered":"Did McCain Shift Emphasis on Abortion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On The View, <\/a>when asked whether he would overturn Roe v. Wade, he first talked about having strict constructionalist judges. Then he said he would not impose a litmus test on the judicial appointments — i.e. not a pro-choice litmus test or<\/em> a pro-life one.
\nEventually he said he thought Roe v. Wade was a bad decision. Why? Not because it enshrined a moral wrong but because it should have been left to the states.<\/p>\n

McCain: “The United States Supreme Court enforces the Constitution of the United States and does not legislate nor invent areas that are the responsibilities, according to the Constitution, of the legislative branch”
\nElizabeth Hasselbeck: “So it was in how Roe v. Wade came about. You want it to be through the constitution from the people not from the bench.”
\nMcCain: “And I believe that if Roe v. Wade then the states would make these decision.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later he said, “I had committed myself to a pro-life position because I happen to believe that life begins at conception but that is an issue that I respect other people’s views on.” If you didn’t know anything else, you’d think he was saying he was pro-life but wouldn’t impose that view on others.
\nThe women on The View did not seem to realize that McCain had endorsed the platform of the Republican Party which calls for a total ban on abortion – not merely a states rights position. Nor did McCain voluntarily offer up that fact, or reconcile his states rights emphasis with his desire for a ban on all abortions.
\nAll in all, in front of this particular audience, the Republican emphasis at the convention on banning abortion was replaced by an emphasis on letting states decide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On The View, when asked whether he would overturn Roe v. Wade, he first talked about having strict constructionalist judges. Then he said he would not impose a litmus test on the judicial appointments — i.e. not a pro-choice litmus test or a pro-life one. Eventually he said he thought Roe v. Wade was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDid McCain Shift Emphasis on Abortion? - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/did-mccain-backtrack-on-aborti.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did McCain Shift Emphasis on Abortion? - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On The View, when asked whether he would overturn Roe v. Wade, he first talked about having strict constructionalist judges. Then he said he would not impose a litmus test on the judicial appointments — i.e. not a pro-choice litmus test or a pro-life one. Eventually he said he thought Roe v. 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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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