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Glenn Youngkin putting down big bucks to play ‘disinformation politics’ on GOP abortion ban

Chris Graham

Glenn Youngkin wants you to believe that Democrats are overstating how much Republicans want to outlaw abortion.

Wonder why this is such a sore spot?

“It’s just not true, their lies about abortion. It’s disinformation politics at its worst. Here’s the truth. There is no ban,” an ad from Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC that debuted this week claims.

“(D)isinformation politics.” Ha.

Somebody’s engaging in “disinformation politics” here. It ain’t the Democrats.

Spirit of Virginia is spending $1.4 million to run the ad, which highlights what the PAC would like you to believe is a “reasonable 15-week limit with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother” being pushed by Youngkin and Virginia Republicans.

Is that “reasonable 15-week limit” a real thing, though?

Remember here that Youngkin was caught on camera during his 2021 gubernatorial campaign saying he was playing down his anti-abortion views so that he could win the election.

“I’m going to be really honest with you. The short answer is in this campaign, I can’t,” Youngkin said in response to a question asking whether he would, as governor, defund Planned Parenthood or “take it to the abortionists.”

“When I’m governor, and I have a majority in the House, we can start going on offense. But as a campaign topic, sadly, that in fact won’t win my independent votes that I have to get,” Youngkin said.

It would appear, with this week’s “disinformation politics” ad, that he’s at it again, trying to mask Republicans’ real intentions to win the independent votes that they have to get to keep control of the House, win a majority in the Senate, and buttress Youngkin’s pending 11th-hour 2024 presidential campaign.

Keep all of that in mind when you consider his “reasonable 15-week limit with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

That’s just window-dressing.

More on how we know that for sure: well, there’s what he said on the topic last summer.

“Any bill that comes to my desk, I will sign happily and gleefully in order to protect life,” Youngkin said.

Emphasis here: “Any bill.”

A “reasonable 15-week limit” would be “(a)ny bill.”

So would an outright ban.

The ad goes on to claim that the “reasonable 15-week limit” placeholder is a “commonsense position that most Virginians support, too,” which, outside of one outlier poll from more than a year ago, no, not true.

Next false claim: “Virginia Democrats support no limits on abortion all the way up to 40 weeks.”

This is an effort to echo Donald Trump’s verbal diarrhea to the effect that Democrats support killing live babies.

Not true.

“Reasonable limits are no limits at all. That’s the truth,” the ad claims.

“Reasonable limits,” sure, like the one that Chris Head, the Republican Senate nominee in the Third District, which will be the new Senate district for our home base, voted for back in 2012.

Head, then a state delegate, voted for a bill patroned by Ben Cline, now, god save us from ourselves, our congressman for the Sixth District, declaring, in the opening sentence, that “(t)he life of each human being begins at conception.”

That bill, obviously, would have outlawed abortion at any stage of pregnancy for any reason with no exceptions.

“Any bill.”

Youngkin has already told you what his endgame here is.

The $1.4 million that his PAC is spending on this ad buy is “disinformation politics” at its best.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].