Scott Walker is fighting to keep his control of the Wisconsin governor’s mansion. His opponent is a woman, Mary Burke. The most recent poll, from Marquette University, shows that Burke is leading 54 to 40 among women. And EMILY’s List, a group that supports pro-choice Democratic women, is running ads drawing attention to all the abortion restrictions Walker has signed.
All that may explain this new ad from Walker, in which he calmly explains his stance on abortion and sounds oh-so-reasonable. Here’s the text of the ad:
“I’m pro-life. There’s no doubt in my mind that the decision on whether to end a pregnancy is an agonizing one. That’s why I support legislation to increase safety and to provide more information for women considering her options. The bill leaves the final decision up to a woman and her doctor. Reasonable people can disagree on this issue. Our priority is to protect the health and safety of all Wisconsin citizens.”
Walker has signed a number of abortion restrictions, including a law that requires admitting privileges for abortion providers. Supporters of that law claim that it would keep women safer, but major medical associations oppose the law. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the rationale that it would make women safer is “feeble.” As for giving women more information, the Democratic National Committee pointed out that “as an Assemblyman [Walker] authored legislation that would have made it a crime for public health officials to give Wisconsin women any information about terminating a pregnancy.”
Irin Carmon