Politico Calls Out Former VA Gov. Terry McAuliffe For Flip-Flopping on Late-Term Abortions

Brittany M. Hughes | April 10, 2019
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In a rare moment of liberal accountability, Politico called out former Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe for doing a complete 180-degree flip on a recently proposed bill in Virginia that would have exponentially increased access to third-trimester abortions for any reason.

Back in January, Virginia Delegate Kathy Tran proposed a bill that would have nixed the state’s current requirement that all third-trimester abortions be approved by three doctors who must unanimously agree that the pregnancy would "likely" kill the woman or "substantially and irremediably" impair her mental or physical health. 

Under Tran’s bill, however, late-term abortions would only require one doctor’s go-ahead and would eliminate the "substantial and irremediable" threshold for mental health impairment, essentially allowing third-trimester abortions of viable, healthy infants whenever a physician subjectively agrees that the woman’s mental or emotional well-being would be in any way damaged - however minimally or temporarily - by having her baby.

It’s a bill current Gov. Ralph Northam publicly said he supported. McAuliffe, on the other hand, said he did not.

As Polifact notes, from a February 3 interview on CNN:

Host Jake Tapper played Northam’s radio interview defending the late-term abortion bill. "Do you support this new legislation? And what was your reaction to the governor's comments there? " he asked McAuliffe.

"Absolutely not," McAuliffe said. "And I think Ralph (Northam) misspoke on that. No Democrat I know is for infanticide, none, none. I just don't know of anyone who is for it."

During a radio interview on April 1, however, McAuliffe said the exact opposite. When asked if he would have vetoed the bill, the former governor answered, “I would not.”

"I would not have vetoed the bill," McAuliffe this time replied. "And listen, I have not read the whole bill, John, but from what I read in the newspaper, if the one thing in the bill was to go from three to one (doctors) to help with rural communities…I would support that. Sure I would."

It’s a complete reversal that Politifact appropriately dubbed a “full flop.” 

“One bill, two polar positions,” the fact-checking site noted. “That’s a Full Flop.”

While only about 13 percent of Americans say they support third-trimester abortions under any circumstances, Democrats have been on a hard push to do just that, justifying laws that legalize late-term terminations of viable infants with little to no restrictions. Similar laws have already been passed by far-left states like New York, with other states like Illinois and Massachusetts vowing to follow suit.

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