No, Herman Cain Is Not Pro-Choice
Things keep getting better and better for Herman Cain, whose latest feat is winning today's Outrage of the Day contest! His poorly worded comments about abortion on Piers Morgan last night have led many to believe that he is actually pro-choice! Well, he's not. He just sucks at speaking.
This meaty passage appears to show Cain delivering a full-throated defense of legal abortion:
CAIN: No, it comes down to it's not the government's role or anybody else's role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you're not talking about that big a number. So what I'm saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make.
Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn't have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.
Many of those watching the clip out of context ran with this passage and thought Herman Cain was coming out as pro-choice. But the lead-up to those comments was:
CAIN: I believe that life begins at conception. And abortion under no circumstances. And here's why —
MORGAN: No circumstances?
CAIN: No circumstances.
MORGAN: Because many of your fellow candidates - some of them qualify that.
CAIN: They qualify but -
MORGAN: Rape and incest.
CAIN: Rape and incest.
MORGAN: Are you honestly saying - again, it's a tricky question, I know.
CAIN: Ask the tricky question.
MORGAN: But you've had children, grandchildren. If one of your female children, grandchildren was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?
As Mother Jones emphasizes, Herman Cain was dodging a specific question about allowing exceptions in the case of rape or incest — that's why he says "if you look at the statistical incidents, you're not talking about that big a number" in his longer answer. He doesn't think exceptions for rape and incest should be allowed. Politicians who believe this are in a bind, because while it's actually the most consistent stance to take if you're pro-life — murdering babies is murdering babies, either way — you don't sound very friendly on a visceral level when you say your hypothetical granddaughter who was raped should be forced to go through with it. So he avoided giving a crisp answer and tried to say "To answer your yes or no question, that is a sensitive situation," and ended up inadvertently giving a clear defense of legal abortion without realizing it. Being tactless, however, does not mean that he's embracing the right to legal abortion. The Christian right may go nuts on him for a few days, but they've lined up behind plenty of candidates before who weren't just fuzzy on the "abortion exceptions," but openly supported them — their all-time hero George W. Bush, to name one.
So: Herman Cain is very strongly against abortion! If he is president, he will nominate Supreme Court justices who explicitly pledge to overturn Roe v. Wade when they get the chance. He will sign any of those severely restrictive anti-abortion schemes that House Republicans pass each week. We have not witnessed a revelation.