Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe flip-flopped on his late-term abortion stance this week, saying he would not have vetoed a bill expanding late-term abortions in the state.
A potential Democratic challenger to Donald Trump in 2020, McAuliffe previously said he opposed a radical pro-abortion bill in his state that would have allowed abortions up to birth, Breitbart reports.
However, in a new interview Monday on The John Fredericks Show, the pro-abortion Democrat flip-flopped and called the legislation “common sense.”
The bill, which later was defeated in the state legislature, drew national outrage after state Delegate Kathy Tran admitted the bill would allow unborn babies to be aborted up to the moment of birth even if there is no physical health threat. A few days later, Gov. Ralph Northam went even further, not only defending the bill but also infanticide.
McAuliffe changed his position on the bill in just a few short months. In February, he told CNN that he opposed the bill and supports abortion for the “life of the mother in the last trimester.” However, on Monday, he contradicted his previous statements.
He defended Tran’s bill, saying its primary purpose was to change the Virginia requirement that three doctors approve a late-term abortion before it can be performed, The Free Beacon reports.
“This is very important. This is when stuff gets caught up in the political grinder,” McAuliffe said. “It got turned into a political theater, and Republicans used it to their advantage, and I think Kathy Tran, when she was asked the question about the woman in dilation, the answer is no, not yes, it’s no.”
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Here’s more from the report:
McAuliffe doubled down later in the interview, saying that disputing bills like Tran’s will hurt the state of Virginia’s attractiveness to women in positions of power.
“Any time you get in these discussions, it’s not helpful,” he said.
“This was a common-sense bill,” McAuliffe added.
“But unfortunately,” he said, “it became political.”
McAuliffe also said he would not have vetoed the bill if he were governor.
McAuliffe is no moderate. Planned Parenthood once described him as a “champion” of abortion. The abortion chain gave him an award in 2017 for repeatedly thwarting efforts to regulate the abortion industry and limit abortions.
McAuliffe made it a priority to weaken abortion clinic regulations as governor of Virginia, according to the Family Foundation of Virginia. The state adopted the regulations in 2011 to protect women and babies after the gruesome discoveries at Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors” abortion clinic in Philadelphia came to light.
The regulations have helped to protect women and babies in Virginia from shoddy abortion practices, including those of notorious abortionist Steven Brigham. The late-term abortionist lost his license to practice in five states, faced criminal charges for killing late-term babies, employed a sex offender and allegedly injured several women. In 2016, Virginia authorities shut down Brigham’s Fairfax abortion facility after discovering filthy, dangerous conditions during an inspection. But McAuliffe worked to weaken regulations.
He also vetoed a bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion chain and promised to veto a late-term abortion ban.
When he was running for governor, McAuliffe received almost $1.5 million from the abortion industry for his election campaign, according to the pro-life organization.
