It seems fair for pro-lifers to worry when politicians seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
Senate candidate Blake Masters of Arizona ran in the Republican primary as a no-compromise pro-lifer. His website used to say he was 100 percent pro-life, and supported a personhood amendment. That verbiage has disappeared, and now he has put out an ad saying he favors a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
For this, Kevin Williamson declares him unsupportable. That’s understandable. It’s better to have consistency in the right direction.
Was this position applied back when George W. Bush was campaigning for the presidency and responded to specific questions about a pro-life constitutional amendment by saying, “The Republican Party should maintain its pro-life tenor“? (Seemed like cowardice to me.) Or saying that he wouldn’t commit to a pro-life running mate? Mitt Romney had once campaigned for a Senate seat by preposterously claiming he was more pro-choice than Ted Kennedy. Was he deemed unsupportable in 2012 because of his flip-flopping on the issue? I only remember that he wasn’t supported enough to win.
The primaries are over. One Senate candidate in Arizona supports the Dobbs decision and supports federal restrictions on abortion that a majority of Americans support. The alternative does neither. It’s good to punish cowardice, but I also really would like to see Republicans control the Senate next year.