McAuliffe, Cuccinelli in spotlight over abortion

Ken Cuccinelli thinks God will punish America over a woman’s right to choose. Terry McAuliffe supports late-term abortion.

The single-issue abortion voters will no doubt vote accordingly. What about the rest of us?

“Ken Cuccinelli’s divisive and offensive statements likening a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions to the ‘evil of slavery’ have no place in our political discourse,” said McAuliffe spokesperson Josh Schwerin, referening news reports earlier this week that Cuccinelli had likened abortion to “the evil of slavery.”

McAuliffe himself earned a headline on abortion for comments at a George Mason University forum this week in which he said he would be a “brick wall” to the erosion of a woman’s right to choose.

Conservatives have twisted those words into making McAuliffe an ardent supporter of late-term abortions.

“Polls consistently show that women want less abortion, not more, and support bans on late-term abortion. What women want is what Ken Cuccinelli stands for, protecting women and babies. Nothing is more extreme and anti-woman than McAuliffe’s promotion of taxpayer funded late-term abortion on demand,” said Ashley McGuire, a Senior Fellow with The Catholic Association.

“By confirming his support for late-term abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has proven once and for all that he is an extremist, out of touch with overwhelming majorities of Americans who do not support late-term abortion,” said Maureen Ferguson, Senior Policy Advisor with The Catholic Association. “In the wake of the Gosnell trial, where America witnessed the ugly and horrific tragedy of late-term abortion, both to the innocent human life being lost and the harm late-term abortion causes women, it is beyond wonderment how anyone can support such a thing.”

Could the strategy from the social right to make the election about abortion backfire? Recent polls have McAuliffe with as much as a 20-point lead over Cuccinelli among women. Might it not be the best idea to push Cuccinelli even more toward the social extreme?

“Yet again, we see Ken Cuccinelli launching divisive attacks focused on an extreme social ideology that is way out of the mainstream,” Schwerin said. “Virginians want leaders who will focus on the economy and job creation, not one who will drive a radical ideological agenda in office.”