Buttigieg’s Position On Abortion Isn’t As Popular As He Seems To Believe

On Sunday, in an admittedly solid move many of his Democrat contemporaries have declined to make, Mayor of South Bend, Ind., and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg took questions from Fox News host Chris Wallace and clarified his position on the growing debate over late-term abortion.

While Buttigieg was refreshingly candid, his answers on that subject are unfortunate for both the nation he seeks to lead and for any ground he hopes to gain as a contender because his answers are fast falling out of favor with most Americans according to recent polls.

Asked by Fox News’ Chris Wallace if he believed there should be “any limit on a woman’s right to have an abortion,” the upstart Democratic presidential contender argued that focusing on the stage of gestation at which a fetus can be aborted is misguided.

“No, I think the dialogue has gotten so caught up on where you draw the line, that we’ve gotten away from the fundamental question of who gets to draw the line, and I trust women to draw the line when it’s their life,” Buttigieg answered.

…

“So, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. If it’s that late in your pregnancy, that means almost by definition you’ve been expecting to carry it to term,” Buttigieg said. “We’re talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name, women who have purchased a crib — families who then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice.”

“The bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family, may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision isn’t going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made,” he said.

OK.

Now use that same logic with vaccinations, @PeteButtigieg. https://t.co/eAKZBEw1tW

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) May 19, 2019

Basically common sense means we accept that patient autonomy is not absolute.

Dems arguing it is for this specific purpose are on thin ice.

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) May 19, 2019

So while Buttigieg’s logic is flawed, he’s also doubling down on a position many, many people have backed away from following the late-term abortion laws floated in states like New York and Virginia. In fact, as a result of the debate over third-trimester abortion resulting from those proposals, new polls show “‘a dramatic shift’ in attitudes about abortion policy,” according to Barbara Carvalho, who directed the new Marist poll commissioned by the pro-life and Catholic group Knights of Columbus.

“Current proposals that promote late-term abortion have reset the landscape and language on abortion in a pronounced — and very measurable — way,” Carvalho said in a statement on the Knights’ website.

…

“The recent legal changes to late-term abortion and the debate which followed have not gone unnoticed by the general public,” Carvalho said.

“In just one month, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of Americans who see themselves as pro-life and an equally notable decline in those who describe themselves as pro-choice.”

The Marist poll, which was conducted in February, shows that Americans are just as likely to claim being pro-life as they are to claim being pro-choice, with both coming in at 47 percent. A month prior in a separate Marist poll, those numbers were 38 to 55 percent, respectively.

Other notable results included an increase to 34 percent of Democrats identifying as pro-life compared to 61 percent who said they were pro-choice. The month prior those results showed 20 percent pro-life vs 75 percent pro-choice.

But perhaps most notably, the new poll showed that a full 8o percent of Americans “believe abortion should be limited to the first three months of pregnancy, a 15-point increase since last month’s poll.”

The point is that while Buttigieg may be lauded by more voters for agreeing to answer questions from a purported “conservative” news anchor, the constituency that agrees with his position supporting abortion-on-demand is getting smaller and smaller.

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