E.J. Dionne: The Abortion Shuffle

[marmar]

from Truthdig:

The Abortion Shuffle

Posted on Feb 12, 2007
By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON—Why is it that abortion, a subject on which political candidates often claim to be expressing their most deeply held moral convictions, is often the issue on which they seem especially opportunistic and unprincipled?

In the campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has moved in a little over a decade from strong support of abortion rights (when he was running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in 1994) to a point where he says he makes “no apology for the fact that I am pro-life.”

Rudy Giuliani’s support for abortion rights seems more constant, but his position, too, has evolved over the years, as Ray Rivera reported <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/us/politics/10rudy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin> in The New York Times on Saturday.

Reappraisals and conversions are not confined to Republicans. Both Al Gore and Richard Gephardt altered their positions on abortion over the years to bring their views into line with Democratic primary voters, who predominantly support abortion rights.

I don’t mean to pick on four public servants who are certainly not alone in doing some version of the abortion shuffle. All of them may be thoroughly sincere in rethinking their old positions. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070212_the_abortion_shuffle/