On The Mythical "Pro-Choice" Republican

Aspazia: “Next time you meet a “pro-choice” Republican, just remember, they might care about their own choice, but they could give a rat’s ass about yours.” Indeed, and this goes for Republicans who hint at “moderation” on choice as well. This is what makes the fact that liberal pundits who should know better are willing to assert that John McCain is a secret pro-choicer so baffling. Aside from the fact that his subjective beliefs are completely beside the point, the fact that McCain doesn’t really believe that a woman he knows should be subject to the use of state coercion to carry her pregnancy to term doesn’t make him a pro-choicer; it makes him a Republican. The “abortion should be illegal but not so illegal that my wife couldn’t get one” faction of “pro-lifers” is simply the Republican flipside to the “as a pro-choicer, I believe we should compromise by denying abortion access to poor women who live in states I never will” crowd, and what Republican “pro-choicers” remain almost always fall into the latter camp.