A post I wrote over the weekend seems to have disappeared, so I’m going to rewrite it here. I divided my reaction to Giuliani’s values-voter speech into three categories: the good, the bad, and the indifferent.
What was good was that Giuliani has now pledged to veto any attempt to weaken current anti-abortion policies, and in particular any attempt to expand federal funding for abortion. He has also said that he would support “reasonable” ideas to reduce abortion, which sounds like a promise to sign any restrictions that Congress could actually pass. These pledges are very good news. The pro-lifers who have criticized Giuliani so strongly over the past few months can take some credit for prompting them.
It is too bad, however, that Giuliani still refuses to say that Roe is bad law. He wants us to accept that different people can reach different conclusions about abortion; but he is unwilling to say that different states should be able to do so as well. Nor has he pledged to veto any legislation authorizing the cloning of human embryos. I hope that Giuliani will keep moving in a pro-life direction.
What leaves me indifferent is the claim that Giuliani’s refusal to pander to pro-lifers should make us trust him more. If I want someone I can trust not to pander to me, I can vote for Hillary Clinton: She never has.