Walker would sign 20-week abortion ban

Shifting his tone to reassure social conservatives, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declared Tuesday that he intends to sign a state law in the coming months that bans abortion after 20 weeks.

In an open letter to the Susan B. Anthony List, the likely Republican presidential candidate also said that he supports “similar legislation” now stalled in Congress.


“My policies throughout my career have earned a 100 percent rating with pro-life groups in Wisconsin,” Walker writes. “As the Wisconsin legislature moves forward in the coming session, further protections for mother and child are likely to come to my desk in the form of a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. I will sign that bill when it gets to my desk and support similar legislation on the federal level.”

Though he supported a 20-week ban as a state legislator in 1998, the governor declined to take a position on the ban last year as he campaigned for a second term. Polls showed the race tied at that point, and his female challenger was heavily emphasizing abortion rights.

“Those are things that we’ll have to talk about in the next legislative session if it comes up,” he said in October when asked about the 20-week ban.

When he ran in 2010, Walker, the son of a Baptist preacher, said he opposed abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. He signed bills during his first term designed to crack down on abortion clinics by requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and forcing women to undergo ultrasounds before the procedure.

Nonetheless, anti-abortion activists have been frustrated by what they see as Walker’s evasiveness on the issue during his 2014 reelection campaign and, most recently, earlier this week on “Fox News Sunday.”

Responding to a seven-figure television buy from the pro-abortion-right women’s group EMILY’s List last October, Walker ran a commercial calling abortion an “agonizing decision” and said his bills leave “the final decision to a woman and her doctor.” At the time, people in the pro-life world grumbled that he was using the rhetoric of the pro-choice movement. Then, during a January appearance in Iowa, he bragged about defunding Planned Parenthood.

“Conservatives, long weary of being romanced on the way to the dance only to be jilted after the ball, are wary,” a post on the American Principles Project web site last week. “If he’ll pivot once, will he pivot back?”

On Fox News Sunday, Walker declared himself pro-life but noted that he could not “change the law” to ban abortion. “The Supreme Court ultimately made that” decision with Roe vs. Wade, he told Fox host Chris Wallace.

“This gaffe is making me wonder whether Walker is ready for prime-time,” Frank Cannon, president of American Principles in Action, said in a Monday press release.

This has led to negatives stories on right-wing sites like Breitbart, and the New York Times recently ran a Sunday front-page story that accused Walker of hardening his position on social issues to woo base voters.

Radio host Laura Ingraham also highlighted a POLITICO story from last week’s Club for Growth donor conference in Florida, where Walker said he is primarily focused on economic issues.

“In the case of social issues, there are beliefs that I have, and I’m not going to hide them,” Walker said. “But I was elected as the governor to focus on the economic and fiscal crisis my state faced. … I believe this country needs someone focused on economic and fiscal issues and, increasingly, safety.”

Walker’s path to the nomination depends on emerging as the leading conservative alternative to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Evangelicals are crucial to his coalition in the Iowa caucuses.

Most of the GOP field has previously pledged to the SBA List that they would try to ban abortion after 20 weeks if elected, according to the group, including Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2010 California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser used Walker’s announcement to pressure New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who supported abortion rights early in his political career, to follow suit.

“Governor Walker is making his pro-life convictions concrete in his presidential platform,” she said in a release. “The only likely candidate who has not yet endorsed the measure is Governor Chris Christie.”

In the open letter, Walker declares his anti-abortion bona fides.

“Life is a value I learned from my parents, and it’s a value I have cherished every day, predating my time in politics,” he wrote. “… I will continue working for every life.”

This article tagged under: Abortion

Wisconsin

Scott Walker