If I am fortunate enough to be elected as the next President of the United States, I pledge to you to be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right to life movement.
— John McCain to participants at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., January 2008.
A recent fundraising letter by the National Abortion Rights Action League calls John McCain’s abortion position (which includes voting “anti-choice” 123 out of 128 times) “the best-kept secret in politics.”
“You want some straight-talk?” continues the letter, “John McCain . . . is anti-choice — period. . . . The fact is, during a quarter century in Congress, Sen. McCain has shown nothing but contempt [for abortion]. . . . Funding for . . . ‘abstinence-only’ programs — he’s for it. Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court — he’s for them.”
The McCain campaign would do well to seize this letter and send it to potential supporters, because, for once, NARAL is right: John McCain is pro-life. The mystery is why so many pro-lifers seem confused.
Exit polls revealed McCain failed to capture even a plurality of pro-life voters in the vast majority of primary states. And a poll by McLaughlin & Associates finds McCain lagging among the (largely pro-life) white evangelical Christian voting bloc.
But McCain recently reiterated his support for retaining the pro-life plank in the Republican-party platform, which calls for a human-life amendment to the Constitution. And McCain is supported by pro-life Congressman Chris Smith, who insists McCain is “pro-life in his heart of hearts,” and by the National Right to Life Committee’s board of directors, which recently unanimously endorsed his candidacy.
Pro-lifers should be rallying around Sen. McCain, and here are a few steps he can take to ensure that they do.
Move Beyond HESCR: Senator
McCain supports federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research. But the recent discovery of a method of re-programming adult cells to behave like embryonic stem cells should remove the demand for destroying human embryos for research. McCain should champion this new life-affirming research, which scientists believe may prove the most effective of all the options.
Get Specific on Judges: When speaking about the types of judges he would look for in Supreme Court nominees, Senator McCain often neglects to mention Justices Thomas and Scalia, both of whom he voted to confirm and have proven pro-life records. McCain could connect with pro-life voters by citing them along with the justices he regularly names, Roberts and Alito.
McCain also often repeats his pledge to appoint “strict constructionist” judges. But, as attorney Matt Bowman has noted, even those judges might not favor overturning Roe. If a justice feels “stare decisis” — deferring to past precedent — is strong enough, and if he isn’t really against abortion, he may decide that overturning Roe may cause greater harm than good. Therefore, as Bowman suggests, McCain should pledge to nominate judges who are not only judicially conservative but also socially conservative on abortion.
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