Larry Hogan, former Maryland governor and current Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, this week took a radical – although not entirely surprising – turn on abortion rights, saying he supports women’s rights. women to choose from and supported the codification of Roe v. Wade.
“I support reinstating Roe as the law of the land,” Hogan told the New York Times days after his GOP primary victory on Tuesday. He added that if elected to the Senate, he would support a “bipartisan compromise to restore Roe.”
He also called himself “pro-choice,” based on “the definition of what I support: the right of women to make their own decisions.”
Hogan’s latest comments represent a notable departure from his tenure as governor, when he avoided taking a definitive stance on abortion rights in word but not necessarily in action. As governor, he said the right to abortion was “settled law” and that he was not eager to implement draconian bans on early abortion, as some of his red state counterparts. But Hogan was not what one might call a champion of abortion rights. In 2022, he vetoed legislation to expand access to abortion, and when lawmakers overrode his veto, he withheld millions of dollars allocated for training new providers. He also said at the time that the Republican Party’s focus on abortion was not “smart policy.”
His middle position reflected his position as a moderate Republican governor of a blue state. But since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion has proven to be a losing issue for Republicans at the polls. With the outcome of his race potentially determining the balance of power in the US Senate, and with the looming specter of another Donald Trump presidency, Hogan’s shift to the left on abortion rights shows just how far — and how quickly — the stakes have changed as he tries to win over voters who reliably sent Democrats to the Senate. As recently as March, when asked by Axios whether he would support legislation to codify Roe into federal law, he gave a noncommittal answer before saying, “It was neither a yes nor a No “.
It’s entirely reasonable for politicians’ views to evolve over the years, and Hogan told the Washington Post that his change on abortion “really wasn’t a major transformation.” Whether voters believe his apparent change of heart is strong enough to withstand inevitable pressure from his party is another question.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
yahoo
