Lindsey Graham Called Out For Flip-Flopping on States Rights After Vowing National Abortion Ban if GOP Retakes Power

Ken MeyerSep 13th, 2022, 2:23 pm
 

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was broadly accused of hypocrisy for introducing a bill to ban abortions around the country after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Graham held a press conference on Tuesday to announce the legislation to broadly restrict the procedure following the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe V. Wade. The bill will allow exceptions to the abortion ban after 15 weeks in cases of incest, rape, or if the mother’s life is at risk.

“We will introduce legislation…to get America in a position at the federal level I think is fairly consistent with the rest of the world,” Graham said. “I look forward to the debate, I look forward to the vote. If we take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill. If the Democrats are in charge, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vote on our bill.”

Graham’s bill tightens up his previous legislative efforts to have abortions banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy. His proposal comes after the Dobbs V. Jackson ruling rolled back federal protections for abortion rights, and as the topic generates political momentum for Democrats, Graham has been accused of flip-flopping and revealing the GOP’s true abortion agenda.

Back in May, the day after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion signaled Roe’s eventual overturn, Graham’s office put out a statement cheering the decision while saying abortion should be left up to the states to decide.

“If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade,” the statement said, “it means that every state will decide if abortion is legal and on what terms. That, in my view, is the most constitutionally sound way of dealing with this issue and the way the United States handled the issue until 1973.”

Graham re-affirmed this position a month ago during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said “I’ve been consistent. I think states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.” It was to this point that during Graham’s press conference, a reporter asked him “how you square” a nationwide abortion ban with his previous call for states to decide abortion for themselves.

His answer:

Pretty easy. After they introduced the bill to define who they are, I thought it’d be nice to introduce a bill to define who we are. So the Democrats wanted a national standard, and their standard was basically abortion up to the time of birth, putting us in the Iran/Syria club. So now we’re gonna talk about what the nation should be like. I’ve introduced this bill and I’m ready to debate and vote on it.

As political watchers break down Graham’s bill, many liberal commentators marveled that Graham gave Democrats major ammunition before the midterm elections, and they ripped him apart by saying he torpedoed his claim of abortion being a “state’s rights” issue.

Watch above via CSPAN.

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